Melody, 2023
Mehsa Merci (b. 1990 Tehran, Iran) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Canada. She obtained her BA in Graphic Design from Tehran University of Art (2009), her MA in Painting from Azad University of Tehran (2014) and MFA from the University of Manitoba in Canada (2019). Mahsa Merci works acorss a variety of media – painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, installation, and video – to reflect on marginal identities. In her landscapes, still lifes, and portraits, she goes beyond the "Norm", as one of her untitled paintings reads, to bring forth direct sensual and tactile experience. The grotesque ("X Is Y", "Be Careful, Everything Is Dangerous Here", "Visa Versa", "The Frozen Womb", "The Grudge"), the obscene ("Hairy Triangle", "The Lustful River", "Let Me Grow" series, "Help"), and the bodily ("She", "Half-naked", "Let Me Grow", "Touch Me", "Frozen Hands", "I Feel") play a central role in her work. Her art finds people who are not often represented in society, especially her own experiences as an Iranian woman and a member of the LGBTQ community. She wants her art to manifest the multiplicity of identities coexisting within an individual as well as challenge the way we think about beauty, texture, and gender.