Several nava sabet-imani paintings show repeated hands and faces, half-hidden and turned away, raising questions about being seen.

Nava Sabet-Imani Turns Repeated Hands and Faces Into Doubt About Being Seen

User avatar placeholder
Written by Seth Sebastian

2026-11-10

Iranian painter Nava Sabet-Imani builds her images through repetition. Her nava sabet-imani paintings and installations ask how the self is formed and how it is perceived. The artist shared this project through the publication’s Submissions section.

Sabet-Imani studied painting at the Faculty of Art and Architecture at Islamic Azad University in Tehran. She also holds a master’s degree in agricultural engineering, with a specialization in medicinal plants. Her practice focuses on how identity, images, and forms take shape through repetition, juxtaposition, and transformation.

Twins and the question of resemblance

Sabet-Imani grew up with a twin sister. Her work draws on that experience and on the tension between resemblance and difference. According to the artist’s profile, identity forms through acts of comparison.

Painted hands repeated across a muted canvas, some partly obscured by soft layers of pale paint.

Changes in scale, framing, and visual structure guide how viewers read her work. Each shift invites them to reconsider what a form is and what it might become.

Repetition that shifts a form’s meaning also drives playful collage work, like surreal visual mashups of toucans, pineapples, and fries, which shows how recombined images can unsettle what we expect to see.

A close view of a painted face with its features blurred and partly erased into the background.

Edits, repetition, and the body

In the painting installation described in the artist’s statement, parts of the body recur, including hands and faces. The statement notes that these often belong to women. The forms in these pieces sit side by side, as if they had been added or removed.

The statement describes each work as the product of a series of edits. The forms look alike but stay distinct from one another. That gap, the artist writes, creates a space for doubt.

Repeated faces in a row, each slightly different, appearing to fade into a grey background.

What “display” means in nava sabet-imani paintings

Sabet-Imani connects juxtaposition and repetition to the concept of display. In her statement, display means a conscious state of being seen. The forms in her paintings are not simply present in the image. They are positioned so that they can actually be seen.

The word usually suggests something engineered and controlled. Sabet-Imani uses it to mean something deliberately shaped for an audience. In this sense, the artificial quality of the image is intentional.

A painting of a hand reaching forward, its outline dissolving into thin, translucent brushstrokes.

For another artist using images to question who gets to be seen and how, Hew Locke’s gilded busts confronting colonial legacies offers a sharp counterpoint on representation and power.

Seeing, she writes, is an inseparable element of the work. Repetition opens a dialogue that reaches beyond resemblance. The series treats the viewer’s gaze as part of the piece itself, not as a reaction added afterward.

Multiple painted figures with downcast eyes, arranged closely together on a plain wall.
Overlapping hands painted in muted tones, with smeared edges that blur their fingers together.
A painted face turned sideways, its eyes closed and its outline partly washed out.
Hands pressed against a pale surface, rendered in layered paint with visible scraping marks.
A grid of small painted faces, each one repeated and slightly faded from the last.
A large canvas showing a single face partly covered by a wash of pale, cloudy color.
Painted hands clustered near the edge of a canvas, with the centre left mostly empty.
Two painted faces side by side, their features softened and merging where the paint meets.
A painting of a hand held up, its fingers repeated in faint, overlapping outlines.
Faces painted in a vertical sequence, each one fading into the next down the canvas.
A figure with its face turned away, covered in thin, translucent layers of muted paint.
Repeated outlines of a hand across a pale background, some lines broken or left unfinished.
A painted face partly hidden behind a smear of grey paint that runs down the canvas.
Several small painted hands arranged in a loose row, each rendered in faded, uneven tones.
A face painted in profile, its eyes missing and the surrounding surface scraped thin.
Hands and faces layered on one canvas, overlapping until it is hard to tell them apart.
A wide painting of repeated faces in soft colours, with some edges left deliberately unfinished.
A small painted hand against a blank field, its edges blurred as if partly erased.
Several nava sabet-imani paintings show repeated hands and faces, half-hidden and turned away, raising questions about being seen.

H/T booooooom.com

Frequently asked questions

Where did Nava Sabet-Imani study painting?

Nava Sabet-Imani studied painting at the Faculty of Art and Architecture at Islamic Azad University in Tehran. She also holds a master’s degree in agricultural engineering, with a specialization in medicinal plants.

What body parts recur in Nava Sabet-Imani’s paintings?

Hands and faces recur in her painting installation, and the artist’s statement notes that these often belong to women. The forms sit side by side, as if they had been added or removed.

What does display mean in Nava Sabet-Imani’s paintings?

In her statement, display means a conscious state of being seen. Her forms are positioned so they can actually be seen, and she uses the word to mean something deliberately shaped for an audience.

Does Nava Sabet-Imani’s work draw on personal experience?

Yes, Sabet-Imani grew up with a twin sister, and her work draws on that experience. It also explores the tension between resemblance and difference.

More in

Art

All Art

More like this

A lone figure stands in an open field beneath a twilight sky in this vin clovercreek painting.

Vin Clovercreek's Twilight Palettes Pair Solitary Figures With Vast Open Skies

Painted figures with limbs knotted together in a gallery, part of fredrik raddum sculptures at Arme og Ben.

Fredrik Raddum Ties Painted Figures in Knots at Copenhagen's Arme og Ben Show

Nicola Turner's horsehair sculptures exhibition in a Georgian townhouse at Hanover Square, showcasing intricate designs.

Nicola Turner's Towering Horsehair Sculptures Haunt Hanover Square's Georgian Townhouse

Two large soil structures stand within a historic setting

Delcy Morelos Sculpts Towering Earth Monuments Amid Seville's Historic Monastery

A surreal garden scene with adrien broom aesthetics, featuring people and animal sculptures in an imaginative setting.

Adrien Broom's Garden of Unexpected Guests: Surreal Portraits at Hôtel Swexan

A variety of artistic installations at Dutch Design Week 2026, showcasing creative exploration and innovative design ideas.

Cutting-Edge Design Transforms Dutch Design Week 2026 with Radical Installations and Thought-Provoki...

Menu