Mahsa Farzi’s work exists in a space between knowing and not knowing, remembering and forgetting. She explores the fluid nature of memory and identity, particularly in the experience of migration. Each piece emerges intuitively from emotions, fragmented memories, and subconscious impressions.

Much of her inspiration comes from Iranian local stories and mythology, though her work does not aim to directly depict these narratives. Instead, they flow through her practice like echoes, fading and reappearing in abstraction and figuration. For Farzi, abstractions are rooted in moments of deep feeling; memories that are no longer clear but still linger as sensations.

The process of making is a way for her to navigate an in-between space, familiar to those who have crossed borders, both physically and mentally. Her work exists in this threshold, where forms shift, meanings fluctuate, and past and present merge into new visual languages.

MEDIUM(S)

sculpture, painting, drawing

ARTIST BIO

Mahsa Farzi (b. 1992, Tehran, Iran) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work navigates the space between memory, identity, and the experience of migration.

Farzi is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of British Columbia (2025) and received her MFA in Painting from the Art University of Tehran in 2021. She was awarded the Joan Wright Hassell Prize in Visual Arts from UBC and Best Thesis for her Master of Arts in Painting at the Art University of Tehran. In 2018, she was recognized as an outstanding student in painting at the Art University of Tehran.

Solo exhibition: Catalogue (2018) at A+ Beirut.

Selected group exhibitions: Digging (2024) at AHVA Gallery, Vancouver; As a Soul (2023) at Sharif Gallery, Tehran; Artist Book (2022) at Basenote, Tehran; Selected Paintings of the University of Art (2017) at Arasbaran Cultural Center, Tehran; Selected Works from the Jokal Festival (2017) at Pardis Mellat Gallery, Tehran; and Supposition but Wouldn’t (2014) at Abi Gallery, Tehran, Iran.