Maryam Eivazi (b. 1980, Iranian) talks to Elina Sairanen about her visual arts practice, career as an artist and relationship to abstraction. Tehran-born and Milan-based Eivazi has been living in Italy since 2014. She has exhibited internationally in a number of countries including UAE, Italy, Denmark and Iran. 

Elina Sairanen: Dear Maryam, could you please introduce yourself and tell us about your path of becoming an artist?

Maryam Eivazi: I’m so glad to talk to you about my work and journey. I am an Iranian artist based in Milan, Italy. My acquaintance with the art of painting goes back to the moment when I encountered a small black and white picture which was printed in a newspaper. It was one of Willem de Kooning’s works named Woman III.  

That time, I was only 14, and I knew nothing about de Kooning, but this was as if the picture was  talking to me about something beyond my perception, something spiritual and from the ideal world. It was such a feeling that I hadn’t experienced before. I cut this picture out of the newspaper, and I kept looking at it all the time. This was the start point of my passion towards painting. The feeling I had by looking at this picture was far beyond any other feelings I had, even by reading poetry, watching movies, or listening to music. In all those years that I was struggling to find my authentic self, this  picture, on that very day, was the only answer and the best instructor for my ongoing activities.  

ES: You graduated from the Tehran Art and Architecture University in 2006 and continued your studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, graduating with a Master’s in Fine Arts in 2014. How did your education contribute to your artistic career?

ME: It is true that I studied fine arts and painting academically in Iran and Italy. Still, if I want to answer  this question honestly, I became a painter in my own studio by painting, experimenting, making mistakes, practicing and studying different artworks.  

ES: You are predominantly an abstract artist. What does abstraction mean for you? What draws you towards abstraction? 

ME: Freedom and its experience is the shortest meaning of an abstract painting. For me, in the abstract world, there are millions of choices, ways, methods and windows in front. In this world, you even have the chance to make mistakes without fear of consequences, because even from your mistake, you can learn a lot or discover new things and even come up with new concepts. As a Middle Eastern woman, I may  have less of a chance in my personal and social life to experience living in freedom. But as a painter, I am  experiencing every moment in a free and borderless world.  

ES: Your paintings are full of colour. Where does your fascination stem from?

ME: All the world’s colors are beautiful; we do not have any bad colors. It may just be a color that is not  in the right place. The challenge of choosing a color and studying different spectrums and tonalities is  one of the exciting points of painting. I can never limit myself to a specific palette. Determining a  particular color can be very frustrating to me, as I am a child who is passionate about all colors and does  not hesitate to use any of them. 

ES: What are the main themes you explore in your work? How did these come about?
ME: All my paintings are, in a way, a scene or scene from the moment of entanglement of anything, such  as nature with city; a piece of a tree branch maybe with an electric light pole; wires with veins; pieces of  the human body with pieces of a billboard or components of city signs.  

Sometimes I use forms as an abstract hyacinth, and sometimes a detail resembling the human body,  organic forms found in nature, or geometric forms. Putting all of these together, finding and hiding  them, combining them, their disappearance, their birth, and death all create a world of images like the  designs of a carpet or a miniature full of color, form, and challenge.  

ES: What do you consider to be your greatest achievements in your career thus far? What have been some of your most memorable moments in your career?

ME: It would be the moment I described above. As a child, I fell in love with painting when I saw that artwork from de Kooning and sought his artistic experience. Perhaps the most magical moment in my career is when, like myself many years ago, a child becomes interested in art by looking at my painting and seeking out their own artistic experience.  

ES: How do you work? What is your relationship to your artistic process? Is it more feeling or research based?

ME: Given my personal experience, painting is a spiritual experience for me, which has helped me a lot  in knowing myself. As a creator, I have to know myself well and find out who I am. Still, all these  experiences are getting possible by finding and mastering the techniques and thus reaching the  emergence stage. Understanding the painting and doing it needed loneliness and even isolation for me. This is my first step in creation.  

My work’s technique is to open myself to experience different shapes, colors, rhythms, and textures. Sometimes I fold the fabric, sometimes I hit it on the wall, sometimes I spread it on the floor, and  sometimes I sand the fabric to reach a polished surface. The simultaneous experience of different types of design in a painting, comparing them and filling in their contrasts, using all the color spectrum without being limited to a specific color palette are all attractive technical challenges for me.  

ES: What kind of future plans do you have? Any particular aspirations?

ME: I will continue the free experience of abstract painting.

Follow Maryam on Instagram here and find her Website here.