BIO

Christina Habibi is an abstract painter born in Tehran, Iran, and based in Athens, Georgia. She has maintained a studio practice for over three decades.

Early in her practice, she worked with a direct, single-pass approach, pouring paint onto the canvas and developing the image through immediate gesture. Over time, her process evolved into a layered and iterative practice that allows forms to emerge, dissolve, and change as the painting develops.

Habibi was featured in the Twin Cities PBS series Minnesota Original, which documented her process and studio practice. Her work has also appeared in the film Dear White People, selected by the production for its alignment with the film’s visual language.

Statement

I make paintings about what we think we know, the unknown, and the changing relationship between them.

My work moves through abstraction, text, and unstable figuration. Forms suggest presence and interaction, but they break apart and re-form as the painting develops.

The work builds through accumulation, revision, and interruption. Marks are layered, reworked, and partially erased. Text enters throughout the process. It moves across the surface, sometimes anchoring the composition, sometimes cutting through it. It doesn’t explain the image. It challenges how the image is read.

The image continues to shift rather than settling into something fixed. The work stays unstable and open to interpretation. It invites the viewer to look again, to remain open, and stay curious.