萨哈尔·卡尔哈利安 is an Iranian-born artist currently residing in Canada whose work explores powerful and traumatic themes including separation, isolation, as well as loss of humanity and identity. As a child, Khalkhalian experienced the 8 year Iran-Iraq War where she saw firsthand just how easily an individual’s humanity and identity could be shattered or ripped away to become only a fleeting memory for those who manage to survive. Following this, she and her sister emigrated to Germany at the age of 13, where she again had to experience the loss of identity and feelings of isolation that are common to immigrants in an alien culture. As a result Khalkhalian’s paintings center directly on expressing these feelings to the viewer which are so hard to express with words alone.

Khalkhalian 不把她的工作当作工作。相反，她只有在真正受到启发时才努力工作。无论是欣喜若狂，还是彻底崩溃。通过只在这些时间工作，她能够保持她的工作原始和真实，捕捉她试图传达的情绪，因为她感觉到它们，而不是在她想要它们时寻找它们。