BY ELIZABETH NOLAN
Artcraft Manager
Gallery visitors are invited to go “Beyond the Border” in Artcraft’s final Showcase exhibition in 2025, an exciting exploration into the deeply human traits shared between all peoples and cultures, featuring Iranian-Canadian artist Shakiba Sattar Boroujeni.
“My journey as an artist has been one of movement across lands, cultures and realities,” Sattar Boroujeni said, adding that living between two worlds shapes her identity and art. Beyond the Border reflects this borderland space, where the self is torn between memories of home and the search for freedom.
Sattar Boroujeni takes the human body as her primary subject but treats it as a vessel for creativity rather than an object or even a subject to be reproduced. She paints abstracted portraits that can encapsulate a wide range of emotions, cultural motifs and sometimes genders within a single figure. Although her recent work incorporates elements of Iranian culture such as the Simurgh (a mythical bird), symbolic animals, and native flowers and trees, she is ultimately most interested in the things that all humans share.
“I dislike borders because they divide people,” Sattar Boroujeni said. “I believe the world is one, and people everywhere are more alike than different. We may have different cultures and lifestyles, but the things we seek — love, happiness, connection — are universal.
“I named my exhibition Beyond the Border not only because these works were created in Iran, Turkey and Canada, but because I want my art to cross over all limitations — geographic, political and personal. Whether you live in a so-called free country or under restrictions, real freedom is something that exists beyond place, beyond the border.”
Sattar Boroujeni has been passionate about art ever since childhood. She studied graphic arts in art school, later earned a bachelor’s degree in painting in Iran, and pursued her master’s degree in visual arts and communication design in Turkey before transferring to studio art at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. She faced challenges along the way, both simply by being born a woman in Iran and because of her preferred subject matter.
“Due to the restrictions, you are not allowed to represent the naked human body. My art has always been about the human forms and feeling, so it was hard to represent,” Sattar Boroujeni explained. “Because of these restrictions, I started creating differently. I wanted to go beyond gender and create figures that could be anyone — forms that focus on the inner essence rather than the outer appearance. That’s why, in my work, you often can’t tell if a figure or portrait is male or female, or even if it’s strictly a body. I deform, exaggerate and transform the form so it speaks about being human, not just about physical identity.”
If social circumstances have influenced Sattar Boroujeni’s style, so have her own artistic interests. She started depicting forms without faces, but over time became fascinated by how much emotion can be expressed through the eyes, even in a single glance, and has since included those features more often. Her time in Canada has also influenced her style. When working in Iran she painted mostly in neutral tones — blues, greys, blacks, browns — but she recently realized her palette has since become brighter and more energetic. Being away from home has also caused her to embrace some traditional cultural motifs, which she melds into the human forms.
In her current series, Sattar Boroujeni also drew inspiration from some of Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou’s powerful collection, “I wish I could be what I want to be.” A core inspiration for this body of work was Shamlou’s poem “If Only I Were Water.” Sattar Boroujeni has designed and illustrated Shamlou’s poetry books, which will be represented in the exhibition along with mixed media paintings on paper.
“The imagery of those poems often enters my work, especially in pieces where nature and the human form merge,” Sattar Boroujeni noted.
Beyond the Border opens at Mahon Hall Friday, Aug. 29, with everyone welcome to attend the opening reception taking place from 6 to 8 p.m. An artist talk with Sattar Boroujeni is set for Sunday, Aug. 31 at 2 p.m. The showcase will run daily during Artcraft hours through Sept. 21.