Born in Iran and raised in the United States, Sheree Hovsepian recalls growing up with “a hyper awareness” of her body as “a politically charged location.” This experience has continually shaped how she depicts the human figure. The artist constructs bodies from fragments, assembling photographs of body parts—mostly her sister’s, as a stand-in for the artist—into three-dimensional compositions. These works also incorporate ceramics, nylon hosiery, string, and wood. Hovsepian has said that she is drawn to materials that resist full control: “The materials have agency.”
In Awoken (2018), stretched hosiery creates an opening across the surface, partially veiling the figure beneath. In Stranger on Display (2024), stacked walnut semicircles extend below a photographed back, echoing the vertebrae of the spine. In Rapport (2024), the image of an arm reaches outward from a ceramic torso. Across these works, bodies appear in parts rather than as unified wholes—assembled, provisional, and deliberately unsettled.
Organized by Marina Molarsky-Beck, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow, Department of Photography, with Lydia Mullin, Manager, Collection Galleries, Department of Curatorial Affairs, and Elizabeth Wickham, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)