Mohammed Sami (b. Baghdad, Iraq, 1984) creates poignant and evocative paintings which explore memory and its vulnerability to time. Sami mines personal experiences from his formative years in Iraq to ground his work, but by embracing ambiguity, he creates a sense of universal familiarity. Negotiating the past through painting, he harnesses the metaphorical potential of different mark-making techniques to interrupt a straightforward narrative reading. Blurred objects often appear as if they are coming apart or moving across the canvas itself, suggesting gaps or slippage of memory. Sami’s compositions unfurl as cryptic vignettes of fragmented scenes, excavated from the past.
Sami’s work can be found in permanent collections around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate, London, UK; The Government Art Collection, London, UK; and The Iraqi Ministry of Culture, Baghdad, Iraq. Sami has been nominated for the Turner Prize 2025 for his solo show, After the Storm, which was on view at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, UK in 2024. Sami lives and works in London, UK.