Samiira Garane is a multidisciplinary artist, and their practice is the study of faces and the human gaze. They are motivated by their own status as an outsider and othered person in society. They see the human gaze as a loaded weapon that can render you less than human. As a Black woman from a Muslim background who identifies as queer and who was raised in Europe in poverty, it was clear to them that they were engaging in a constant tug of war for their personhood.
There is a thread of paranoia that runs through their work: an anxiety around being surveilled by the state or by people wielding capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, religious doctrine, and heteronormativity against you. Garane's work is a reflection of an awareness of these forces, as well as a resistance to them.
Garane uses a mixture of techniques such as oil and acrylic painting, photography, sewing, and collage, which they process and manipulate digitally. Their work often takes the form of a zine or a series of prints. They also use sound and video in their presentations.
EXHIBITIONS
2025
I left this place too many times and why it should be illegal to cut down trees, FLINTA*8000, Aarhus, Denmark
2023 Digital Specimens, CXLLIDE, London, UK
2022 Xishood, Dazed X Buildhollywood, My Club Is..., London, UK
2022 Xishood, Hysterical Collective, No Format Gallery, London, UK
2021 Xishood: The Free Woman’s Manifesto, UAL Grad Showcase, London | UK