Mahsa Merci is a Toronto-based Iranian artist whose work has been exhibited worldwide including Art Basel Hong Kong, and The Other Art Fair in Los Angeles. We discovered Merci this past fall at the Toronto Art Fair; her dramatic busts drew lots of attention. Merci’s first solo exhibition, Silent Stars, is currently on at Mayten’s Project. The striking portrait series celebrates drag queens and explores themes of oppression and identity.

News done by She Does the City

Mahsa Merci is a Toronto-based Iranian artist whose work has been exhibited worldwide including Art Basel Hong Kong, and The Other Art Fair in Los Angeles. We discovered Merci this past fall at the Toronto Art Fair; her dramatic busts drew lots of attention. Merci’s first solo exhibition, Silent Stars, is currently on at Mayten’s Project. The striking portrait series celebrates drag queens and explores themes of oppression and identity.

Growing up in Tehran, Merci was unable to express herself freely. “When I started to make art maybe around 10 years ago, I worked on gender identity, sexuality, and beauty. I was living in Iran and when some curators or galleries came to my studio, they told me I cannot show these works in the gallery because lots of my works were very sexual,” says Merci, who hated being muzzled. “Art is like a river and I don’t want to block it, I want to make time, give time to it, to find its own way.”

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