Maysha Mohamedi

The Lodge is pleased to present Oar Tatig, an exhibition of new paintings by Iranian-American artist Maysha Mohamedi. The exhibition features new work that radically evolves Mohamedi's idiosyncratic gestural language by formally drawing upon the calligraphic line of her native language. Farsi - a language rich in metaphor and poetic suggestion - also serves to symbolize the lens through which Mohamedi represents the internal world of her gender, her species and her self.

Accurately depicting the artist's straddling of two cultures, the paintings on view equally present motifs of figuration and abstraction. Mohamedi uses her trademark palette of primary colors and an unorthodox collection of mark-making implements to reference fate, play and dominance - issues central to the Iranian mind.

Underscoring these works are Mohamedi's training in chemistry and the greater biological sciences: she hand collects beach tar from the beaches of Santa Barbara and distills this blackest of black substances into paint.

Oar Tatig is an acronym that stands for the phrase "Open and Receptive to All That is Good."

Maysha Mohamedi is an Iranian-American painter who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her studio is located in the Fashion District in Downtown LA but she uses materials from all over: from beach tar that she collects with her sons on the beaches of Santa Barbara to tubes of Middle Eastern paint imported from her mother country of Iran. She has exhibited widely in New York and Los Angeles, including exhibitions at The Hole, The Pit and Steve Turner Contemporary. She is also a founding member of the Los Angeles art group Binder of Women. Maysha is the recipient of several award and residences, ranging from a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Tokyo, to an AICAD New York Studio Residency. Her work has been profiled in the LA Times, The Huffington Post, SF Arts Quarterly and The Conversation Art Podcast.