ROOHI SALEEM
Artist’s Statement
My abstract oil paintings reflect an identity suspended between East and West. Born in Karachi, Pakistan and having lived in Dubai, Muscat, Los Angeles, and now New York as a Pakistani American, painting has been a constant through changing languages, cultures, skin colors, and landscapes.
Paintings embody my hopes, thoughts, and frustrations. I am fascinated by relationships, from the intimate dynamics within a family to the broader interactions that shape our global community, often overshadowed by politics rather than humanity.
I obsessively draw, scribble and embed text, letters and symbols in my work. Like a puzzle, I stack and connect shapes, recognizing and organizing elements. Patterns and patchwork appear, like piecing together spatial fragments of a dream or memory. These combinations create a sense of orientation and disorientation, oscillating between coherence and chaos, stability and fragmentation, much like magnetized balls of energy. My paintings blend themes and colors from Pakistan and the Islamic world into modern abstraction. The deep mineral colors such as lapis, emerald, and ochers, of South Asia often show up.
Biography
Roohi Saleem has exhibited her artwork internationally in solo and group exhibitions throughout the Middle East and the United States, including the Omani Society for Fine Arts, Muscat Art Society, Purchase College, Madelyn Jordon Fine Art and HV MOCA in Hudson Valley NY. Her individual works of art as well as commissioned murals are in many private and public collections including some US Hedge Funds, the Former US Ambassador to Yemen, the Secretary General of the Tender Board of Oman, and the President of Oman National Bank. She earned a BFA from SUNY Purchase College, NY, Magna Cum Laude.
“Roohi Saleem applies her innate sensitivity and design expertise to create expressive paintings. Her concern for human conditions, global events, and inequalities bring a depth of perception to her animated paintings.” ~ Renee Phillips, Director, Manhattan Arts International.
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