Maryam Yousif, a contemporary artist, showcases her clay sculptures that blend Mesopotamian culture with divine feminine themes in two exhibitions. Her works evoke the women of Mesopotamia’s history and incorporate family memories of exile and Bay Area Funk aesthetics.
Maryam Yousif is a contemporary artist known for her clay sculptures that evoke Mesopotamian culture and the divine feminine. Her latest shows, “Tremble Like Reeds” at Rebecca Camacho Presents and “Riverbend” at ICA SF, showcase diverse influences and creative hybridity.
The “Riverbend” exhibition includes an eclectic number of artifacts arranged in an excavation-like trove. Yousif’s imagery is expansive and generous, blending timelines and symbolism. Arab divas, such as singers Fairuz and Majida El Roumi, find a place among Mesopotamian female icons and heroines.
In “Tremble Like Reeds,” Yousif’s works are framed in panels that recall comic strips and the architectural style of old Iraqi building facades and balconies. The show is an exquisite rendition of an original artistic grafting process that leaves one under an enduring spell.
Yousif’s shows demonstrate diverse influences and creative hybridity, connecting the women of Mesopotamia’s long history with family memories of exile and the vibrant aesthetics of the Bay Area Funk movement. Her art is a space where conversations collide, exchanging ideas between the distant past and intimate relics of memory.
The artist draws inspiration from her own mother, who drew when living in Baghdad, kept a painting from the 1970s that made a lasting impression on Yousif’s own exploration of figurative possibilities and ways for art to subtly convey desires for looseness and emancipation.
Maryam Yousif is a contemporary artist known for her clay sculptures that evoke Mesopotamian culture and the divine feminine. Her latest shows, “Tremble Like Reeds” at Rebecca Camacho Presents and “Riverbend” at ICA SF, showcase diverse influences and creative hybridity.
The Artist’s Inspiration
Mesopotamian Women as Inspiration
“Riverbend” Exhibition
“Tremble Like Reeds” Exhibition
Influences and Creative Hybridity
Quotes from Yousif
