Maysha Mohamedi at Parrasch Heijnen

The paintings throughout “Sacred Witness Sacred Menace,” Maysha Mohamedi’s first solo show at Parrasch Heijnen, oscillate between large swaths of color and intricate dabs and spots. Across the abstract works, thin lines guide the eye, sometimes arching gracefully across raw canvas, and other times stalling out in scribbled notations. 

Amidst pastel pinks, sages, and yellows, canvas-colored paint is used as a correctional mark, dabbing out previously painted marks like White Out. Within each painting, a kind of internal logic builds. Shapes are birthed and repeated, creating a rhythmic flow. Some of Mohamedi’s forms look vaguely like bunting flags blowing in the breeze, while others feel like negative shapes leftover after cutting out some other more important object. Decipherability feels beside the point, however—it’s far more enjoyable to allow your eye to wander, getting lost within Mohamedi’s painted worlds.

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Photo: Maysha Mohamedi, “Cool Dreams Dropped Into Your Hearts,” 2021. Oil on canvas, 81 x 99 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Parrasch Heijnen.