Art is a space where conversations collide in Maryam Yousif's whimsical, cheeky and thoughtful three-dimensional works—exchanges that connect the women of Mesopotamia’s long history with family memories of exile and the vibrant aesthetics of the Bay Area Funk movement.
Deeply connected with her Chaldean and Assyrian roots, Yousif’s visit to the British Museum in 2018, where she saw ancient Iraqi artifacts, became a decisive moment in the young artist’s formative years. This visit exposed her to a rich past and visual culture around the time that she began experimenting with clay. While Yousif and her family left a turbulent Iraq in the 1990s, this uprootedness gave way to an embrace of diverse influences and creative hybridity that permeate her various shows, including two new solo exhibitions this year: “Tremble Like Reeds” at Rebecca Camacho Presents and “Riverbend” at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco...
-Farah Abdessamad
