'I have always been fascinated by the invisible. Our breath is invisible and that's what keeps us alive. We are not our bodies alone: life is something more elusive and intangible and to penetrate that we need to go further than what we can see. Our perception is very limited (...) I would like my work to be open and generous, different for every person who sees it'.
(Shirazeh Houshiary, in an interview with Griselda Murray Brown, Financial Times, 12th October 2011).

The two main characteristics of Houshiary's much sought-after paintings and drawings are that they are intentionally barely visible and they refuse to be snapshots of a specific object or moment. Indeed, Houshiary's subtle and complex works constantly seem to emerge from and melt back into the black or white backgrounds of her canvas or sheet of paper. The artist explains that her work 'comes and goes: sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't. The universe is like that - everything is in a state of flux'. She seeks to capture the elusive and invisible, which fascinate her so much and does so by producing an extraordinary game of pigment and lines carefully interwoven onto the work's surface to create a very fine constellation and gauze-like layer of colour onto her eternal black and white bases. Houshiary clearly states that her works are not spiritual and that she is not influenced by any particular art trend of the past, yet her work is a witness of her Iranian roots, particularly of her interest in Sufism and in 13th century Persian mystic poetry.