Galerie Fons Welters presents Casino Copernicus, a solo exhibition by Sam Samiee in the front space of the gallery. Samiee is a former Rijksakademie resident. His practice builds on two important pillars: painting and research. The combinations and references made by the artists in his installations filled with paintings and sculptural

elements relate to - but are not limited by - Persian literature, psychoanalysis, Western art history and philosophy.

For the development of the works on view in Casino Copernicus two texts have been important to Samiee: The Unfinished Copernican Revolution by French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche and The Black Sun by Bulgarian-French philosopher and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva. Samiee compares the practice of an artist/painter to the act of gambling; every stroke, decision or step in the work could bring you a step forward, but it could also set you back. A pursuit which at the same time has a nearly unattainable goal. The books attend to Samiee’s interest in the way the people we like or are afraid of form the centre of our thoughts and actions. His installations often evoke a sense of disorientation, inspiring the viewer to re-relate them self to the space and time. Samiee invites us to actively participate in the birth of new, more interrelated worlds. 

Sam Samiee (1988, IRN) lives and works in Amsterdam, Berlin and Tehran. He studied painting and industrial design at the Art University in Tehran; AKI Art and Design at ArtEZ, Enschede and was a resident artist at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam during 2014-2015. Recently Samiee had a solo show at the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague and his work was part of the 10th Berlin Biennale. He won the Wolcevamp Prijs 2018 and in 2016 he was awarded the Royal Award for Modern Painting in the Netherlands. In 2016 he exhibited in the group show Baroque at Galerie Fons Welters. His work is held in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague and AKZO NOBEL as well as various private collections.