Lecture by Sam Samiee

In his work Sam Samiee, born in Iran, focuses on the practices of painting and research in history or philosophy, Persian Literature, the history of painting and psychoanalysis. Samiee has been meticulously constructing a theoretical prehistory for his painting practice out of the Persian literary legacy of the past millennium as it relates to the core concepts of contemporary psychoanalysis.

Characteristic of his work is the break from the tradition of flat painting and a return to the original question of how artists can represent the three-dimensional world in the space of painting as a metaphor for a set of ideas. Therefore most of his work is presented as immersive painterly installations. Sam Samiee does not shy away from the ornamental. His so-called I-pad drawings for example, drawn with a simple application, are photocopied and multiplied to form ornamental framings. Within the context of his installations, these patterns move beyond the decorative and reveal a fragmented autonomy.