Ed Cross Fine Art and Rīz Gallery are pleased to present Where the Soul Finds its Home, a focused yet resonant exhibition of paintings by British-Iranian artist Sara Shamsavari.
Rīz Gallery is upstairs at Kiani Tea, 20 Royal Exchange, London
"Fragments of Farsi text layered with salt, copper, and gold leaf trace stories of resilience, exile, and belonging."
Shamsavari is widely recognised for her photographic practice exploring transnational identity, freedom of expression, and the subversion of narrow definitions of gender, race, orientation, and faith. Her painting practice, while related, turns inward: a space for processing the personal and lifelong trauma rooted in her early experiences of war and displacement.
As with many artists from South-West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), Shamsavari’s work emerges from the intertwined realities of exile, resilience, and escape from dictatorship, as well as the persistent misrepresentation of her heritage and culture. At its core, the work speaks to universal themes of loss, separation, and the search for belonging shared by refugees and migrants worldwide.
Each canvas contains fragments of Farsi text — at times urgent and insistent, at others fragile and elusive. Gold, silver, and copper leaf intertwine with pumice, acrylic, salt, and lemon, creating surfaces that mirror the extremes endured by those forced to seek refuge. The often-obscured words gesture to absence, erasure, and the precarious nature of existence itself.
Amid a climate of growing polarisation in the UK, Shamsavari’s paintings find a fitting resonance within Kiani Tea — a space that, like her work, honours Persian heritage and sustains rituals of resilience that endure across time, place, and generations.
