As far as changes of career direction go, molecular neuroscientist to painter must be the equivalent of a Formula 1 hairpin. SoCal artist Maysha Mohamedi made the move on graduating in cognitive science from UC San Diego, moving to San Francisco to take an MFA from California College of Arts. Mohamedi’s first academic experience has not gone to waste, however, and can be seen in creative output such as the Underwater 22 Minutes series now on show at Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art.
The abstract works allude to the tricks the mind can play under stress, and the brain’s capacity for distortive or generative processes. Her compositions, like the thought-processes that inspire them, are non-linear. Mohamedi drags paint across the panels by any means that suggest themselves — hands, wrists, found objects — and the creative processes give rise to non-conformist imagery that mess with traditional ideas of ornamentation and symmetry. Don’t hold your breath, get over to the San Francisco gallery before 1 May.
Maysha Mohamedi
Bleeding Green Below Forty Feet, 2015 (left panel)
Oil on masonite panel
66 x 71.5 inches
Maysha Mohamedi
Circuit Circus, 2015
Oil on linen
90 x 48 inches
Maysha Mohamedi
Underwater 22 Minutes”, 2015
Oil on masonite panel
66 x 71.5 inches
Maysha Mohamedi
Set of Imagninary Numbers, 2015
Oil on masonite panel
16.5 x 17.5 inches
Maysha Mohamedi
Fractionation/Floculation, 2015
Oil on linen
90 x 58 inches
