An irregular 12-sided canvas holds a dreamlike scene against a smoky rose, mauve, and umber sky. Three Black women emerge from darkness and from folds of silver-gray drapery that gather heavily across the lower edge. At left, one woman faces forward with a steady gaze. The top of her head opens into a glowing, brain, edged by pale light. At right, a second figure turns in profile, chin lifted, eyes looking off to the side. Between them, a third rests lower, head tilted and half-reclining. Around and above them, disembodied hands descend or hover, some open, some curled, some gently offering. Sprays of vivid yellow flowers thread through the composition like sparks or veins, crossing bodies, hands, and cloth. Fine gold contour lines trace shoulders, arms, and fingers, making parts of the figures seem to appear and disappear at once. The title “Catalyst” suggests activation like a force that sets change into motion without fully containing it. American artist Maryam Adib’s larger practice centers memory, dreams, lineage, and the natural world. This painting feels like as an image of psychic, ancestral, and communal awakening. The opened head, hovering hands, and branching flowers imply thought becoming growth, memory becoming action, and care becoming transformation. Rather than isolating the figures, the composition binds them through touch, atmosphere, and shared symbolic space. Made when Adib was a young artist before completing her BFA in 2020, the work already shows themes that would define her later practice: magical-realist figuration, layered consciousness, and histories felt in the body. In Cornell’s Here & Now: Artists of Central New York, the painting also resonates with the exhibition’s focus on the body as a site where identity, place, and lived experience converge.
“Catalyst” by Maryam Adib (American) - Oil & acrylic on canvas / 2019 - Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art (Ithaca, New York) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #MaryamAdib #Adib #JohnsonMuseum #JohnsonMuseumOfArt #Cornell #art #artText #artwork #2010sArt #AmericanArtist #AmericanArt
