Mahsa Merci

A Spectrum of Textured Beauty

Mahsa Merci

Winnipeg, CA

“From my point of view, the human face is the only part of the body that gives us the fundamental knowledge of a person, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject.

Portrait paintings can reveal the sitter’s place in society, their identity, gender, hobbies, occupation, or aspects of their personality or beliefs. I have worked on different types of portraits over the years. My main inspiration was the people of my hometown, Tehran, Iran.

Currently, I am working on more portraits and my main focus is on how I envision aesthetics in my own way. I am eager to show the spectrum of beauty, softness and harshness, and masculine and feminine. Thus, in this new series, I called ‘‘Between’’, I paint the LGBTQ community, mostly transsexuals, gays, and Drag Queen's portraits with oil colors on small canvases to show intimacy to people. With this, I’ve invited the audience to come closer to the www.mahsamerci.com portraits to see them more meticulously and discover all the details and textures. This gesture encourages the viewer to engage with the portraits.

I believe in these portraits, I draw the pain, the mental damage, the family concerns, the cultural, social, and political issues that they have dealt with.

From afar, the viewer sees women with different attitudes, different gestures, different hair colors, and lipsticks, all with different versions of beauty. As they get closer to the work, these women and their identities transform into men with rough skin texture and unshaven facial hair.

Why “Between”? Because I believe there is always a spectrum between the two poles; poles that are at times contradictory and others complementary, and at the same time turbulent and sometimes unexplored. ”

Mahsa Merci Detail · A Transexual Woman With Yellow Dress, 2019 Oil on canvas 40 x 30 x 1.5 cm

Mahsa Merci was born in rally, the mining of beauty. 1990, in Tehran, Iran. She holds In the topics and themes, she a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic examines through painting, colDesign from Tehran University of lages, sculpture, and installation, Art and a Master of Painting and sometimes all of the above, from Azad University in Iran. she aims at creating a space Currently, she is studying under where the viewer confronted a full scholarship at the Univer- with thought-provoking visuals sity of Manitoba, Canada, and and meanings. She is often working toward a Master of Fine challenging the viewer to invesArts degree. tigate their own identity, as well

Her practice encompasses pro- as examining the relationship fessional artistic activities that that their gender and social praccombine various art forms in tices relate to that of her. new and unusual ways. In this Her choices of juxtaposing way, Mahsa is an experimental materials that she considers with artist who is seeking new forms each project are crucial in deterof expression. She finds this mining the message that Mahsa aspect of her practice challeng- intends to deliver. Her works ofing. While she was facing cen- ten measure the definitions of sorships to express her feelings aesthetics in social relations and through her works as a bisexual society. woman artist in a society full of Mahsa has exhibited her governmental restrictions and ta- works in over thirty-five solo and boos, she examines the indirect group exhibitions in the United ways of forbidden elements. States, Italy, UAE, India, Cyprus,

In fact, Mahsa combines a Canada, and Iran. Her works are multitude of elements in order to internationally published in vaencourage dialogue between the rious magazines from Iran, the viewers and the work, frequently UK, United States, and Norway. challenging the viewers to explore ideas of identity and gender differentiation and gene- Text by the artist 91