This solo exhibition gathers twelve artworks—primarily works on paper—created by Ariane Hafizi between 2012 and 2014 in Bethesda, Maryland. Following the onset of severe health challenges in 2011, Ariane’s transformative period in New York came to a close, marking the beginning of a deeply introspective final chapter at her family home.
In his monograph Ariane, the Spanish art critic and curator José Ignacio Abeijón Giráldez reflects on the nature of this ultimate creative phase:
“From this moment on, living in her home, ‘surrounded by love,’ as she herself wrote, Ariane managed for the first time to make her life flow only through her being, and thus to find happiness within herself, rather than on the outside. Of happiness, she wrote: ‘No one can bring me my happiness, I have to make and nourish it myself.’ Ariane finally felt at one with herself, after many years navigated in a merciless world, which was nonetheless an essential part of her path and evolution. To find herself, she first had to lose herself, because, as Rudolf Steiner writes, ‘spiritual evolution is not manifested in the possibility of storing knowledge, telling truths or working miracles, but in the ability to correct one’s own mistakes.’
During this period, art was more than ever her traveling companion, something intrinsic to her soul. Freed from the pressures of commercial exhibitions and the demands of carving out a career, she focused entirely on her essence. Art became a therapeutic, sacred tool with which to crystallize her real existence and advance her self-knowledge, as she beautifully expressed: ‘No necesito ser perfecta. Solo necesito ser muy clara y concentrada de lo que soy capaz y más allá.’”
This profound shift in approach had beautiful repercussions on her art, resulting in far simpler, highly intimate works that did not attempt to impress the external world, but rather responded to an urgent, internal necessity. The absolute freedom with which they were executed is intimately linked to the pure, uninhibited expression of her sensitivity.
This evolution did not represent a complete break from her past; instead, Ariane eliminated everything superfluous that did not correspond to her true being, while keeping her creative essence intact. Curved, sinuous lines continued to populate her compositions, developing and building themselves organically. Paper remained her preferred medium, translated into even smaller, jewel-like formats that hold an immense spiritual magnitude".