Elham Shafaei (b. Rasht, Iran 1983) attended the School of Arts at the University of Science and Culture in Tehran where she received her bachelor’s degree in art. In 2010 she moved to Malaysia where she received both her M.A. and PhD in Fine Arts. In 2017 she relocated to the United Arab Emirates, where she is currently living and pursuing her studio practice. She is an international exhibiting artist and curator and the Co-Founder / Co- Editor of ContemporaryIdentities International Online Art Magazine.
While Elham’s formal education had trained her in the fields of painting, drawing, and papermaking, her current studio practice ventures into rather versatile and eclectic trajectories, allowing them to experiment with a wide range of ideas and materiality. It began with an earnest attempt to elaborate on her painterly sensibility by adding another dimension of stitching onto the surface. Consequently, a body of work emerged under the theme of loss and belonging. In fact, the idea of loss has been an integral part of the artistic temperament. Loss is seen as a rather universal phenomenon, beginning with a fundamental Loss—the separation from the maternal body. Human existence is viewed as starting in continuity with another body and transitioning into individuality through the cutting of the umbilical cord, thrusting individuals into the world as foreigners, forever grappling with a profound sense of not belonging. The existence of Elham is seen as always structured by Loss and un-belonging, entailing an eternal desire to belong. Love, family, friendship, patriotism, and even work itself are among the names given to this desire. The artist’s art extends the exploration of this desire through melancholic creatures, cuttings, and stitches that express the idea of being removed, displaced, transplanted, and re-attached. This is achieved through a combination of painting, soft sculpture, wearable paintings, and fabric art, all aimed at representing the complex notion of objecthood. Apart from the mentioned practice, they are also currently involved in a couple of projects based on fabric art that aim to address the absurd moments of existence in the present.