Zahra Holm

Originally from Sweden and Tunisia, contemporary artist Zahra Holm lives and works in Paris. Holm started drawing at a very young age and has become a self-taught painter, primarily working with oil paint. Fascinated by the female form, the main subject of her work, Holm uses bold colours and curvaceous lines to create striking compositions that reflect the beauty and power of women. The forms suggest femininity, or what is conventionally considered female, almost close to abstraction. Her work is a tribute to the essence of femininity, and an invitation to rediscovering imperfection. This modern female focus brings forward a question of beauty ideals, body shapes and gender. She confronts through her art the society of today, where perfection is everywhere. The painter filters her personal experiences and questions herself through abstraction and simplification.

In Zahra’s latest work, her link to nature is omnipresent. She believes that nature is part of our soul and body. Now more than ever, she feels the need to reconnect with nature. You can feel the sun, the sunset, the sea, sun-kissed skin. The result is a fusion between abstract landscapes and bodies, where landscapes were turned into bodies and bodies into landscapes. They represent the body in motion as much as what’s happening inside the body, the mind.

Profile picture by Jeanne Perrotte.