Sanam Khatibi. An hour before the fall of the devil

P · P · O · W Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Sanam Khatibi in the USA. This exhibition, which presents new paintings by the Belgian artist, is equally mesmerizing and repulsive, undermining our biased understanding of beauty and cruelty. At the same time exciting and warning against the grotesque splendor found in the chaotic canvases of the northern masters of the early Renaissance, Khatibi repeats these allegorical narratives with her dreamily depicted female heroes and fantastic landscapes. However, these temptingly lush and seductively exotic facades refute their harmful truth. Given in the atypical Eden of Khatibi, these works seduce us only in order to reveal the dichotomy between triumph and failure, fear and desire, pleasure and pain.