HUSEYIN SAMI

Early Life and Education

Born in 1979 in London, UK, Huseyin Sami moved to Australia as a young child. He holds a BFA (2000) and master’s in Visual Arts (2003) from Sydney University (Sydney College of Arts). In 2006, he spent six months at Modern Art Oxford, using the proximity to major museums to expand his research.

Themes and Techniques

In the early years of his practice, Sami began exploring with the potentials of paint through unusual techniques including pouring the material through perforated surfaces (part of his Painting Machine series [2003—ongoing]), painting with his feet while lying on the floor, and painting with a nine-metre-long brush.

Around 2014, Sami began producing works by cutting dried paint and draping it on surfaces and supports. Applied to a new surface, the paint appears wrinkled and intimate, like laundry or other domestic textiles frozen in time. His 2015 exhibition Whisper from a Band of Myth Makers at Sarah Cottier Gallery in Sydney saw him stretch pastel ‘skins’ of paint over wire and onto canvas.

Oftentimes, the draped textures of Sami’s paintings suggest bodily connotations. For his solo exhibition matter and colour (2020—21) at Taubert Contemporary in Berlin, Sami presented works in soft, muted pastels and black, white and grey. Due to their seemingly fragile, wet-looking surfaces resembling skin, the works exuded a soft sense of eroticism.

Exhibitions and Awards

Huseyin Sami’s works have been the subject of many groups and solo exhibitions at institutions including Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney (multiple, since 2007); EPRA Perth Cultural Centre Arts Project, Perth, Australia (2011); Cowra Regional Art Gallery, Cowra, Australia (2011); Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne (2009); Sydney College of Arts (2010); Kunst Projects, Berlin (2009); Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre Sydney (2006); and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2004).Sami’s works are held in notable public collections such as Art Gallery of Western Australia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Saatchi & Saatchi, Wellington, New Zealand; Artbank in Sydney; and in private collections in Australia, Germany, Japan, UK and USA. Sami is the recipient of the Janet Holmes à Court Artist’s Grant, an Australia Council New Work Grant and the CCA Contemporary Arts Centre Scholarships.

Huysein Sami lives and works in Sydney, Australia.

His website can be found here.

Leila Sajjadi | Ocula | 2021