From 27 January to 1 March 2026, Leila Heller Gallery in Dubai is hosting Ancestral Algorithms, a solo exhibition by Iranian-born contemporary artist Bahar Sabzevari. The exhibited body of work explores how ancient mythologies, natural symbols, and pre-digital knowledge systems can be reinterpreted through the lens of today’s algorithmic and artificial intelligence paradigms.
Sabzevari’s practice is rooted in researching Persian motifs, mythology, and the visual language of cultural heritage. In Ancestral Algorithms, she translates these heritage codes into a contemporary vocabulary through painting, drawing, and narrative imagery: media she has long employed to examine the intersections of cultural memory and present-day experience. Her canvases combine organic forms, mechanical structures, and symbolic networks, drawing parallels between ancient storytelling and contemporary technologies.
A series of large-scale paintings, rendered in oil on canvas and wood panel, layers botanical and zoomorphic imagery with references to Persian miniature traditions and cosmological symbolism. Smaller works on paper, executed in charcoal and acrylic, explore the tension between the natural and the constructed through densely layered compositions of flora, fauna, and mythological figures. Across the exhibition, Sabzevari’s signature visual vocabulary (elaborate crowns, fantastical creatures, and richly patterned surfaces) articulates a dialogue between nature and technology, deep time and present-day cognition.
The exhibition’s title evokes the idea that modes of transmission from ancient myths and oral traditions to digital code and AI are frameworks humanity has developed to encode, share, and preserve knowledge. Sabzevari’s works position the viewer in a liminal space between the organic and the constructed, where memories, symbols, and networks interweave to reveal how human awareness continues to reorganise itself through evolving systems of meaning.
Drawing on a rich visual vocabulary that combines organic forms, symbolic structures, and mechanical motifs, the exhibition invites reflection on how ancestral memory and contemporary technological systems both serve as human-made devices for shaping belief, storytelling, and connection. They urge us to consider what it means to “remember” in an era shaped by both myth and machine.
About the artist
Bahar Sabzevari (b. 1980, Iran) is a Brooklyn-based visual artist whose work explores the intersections of cultural memory, mythology, and environmental consciousness. She obtained a BFA from Université Paris 8 (2008) and an MFA in Painting from the New York Academy of Art (2018). Her practice spans painting, drawing, and narrative imagery infused with cultural and philosophical inquiry.
Her work is inspired by Persian storytelling traditions, mythology, and her own diasporic experience, blending symbolic motifs and intricate visual narratives to explore themes of identity, memory, and survival. Sabzevari’s paintings often engage with both ancient and contemporary sources, from Persian miniatures to scientific ideas, and articulate complex layers of meaning through gesture, form, and colour. The artist’s research-oriented studio process weaves together diverse imagery and references to create works that resonate across personal and collective histories.
Sabzevari has presented her work in numerous exhibitions internationally, including Love, LHG Art Dubai (2025); Portraiture Now (Advocartsy Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 2025); Maximal Miniature (MEI Gallery, Washington DC, USA, 2025); TED Immigrant Diaspora: Iranian (New York, 2023); Art on a Postcard (London, UK, 2021); and Summer Residency Exhibition (Cheng Xi Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, 2017), among others. Sabzevari’s accolades include the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant (2024) and the Civitella Ranieri Residency in Italy (2021).
To get more information about Ancestral Algorithms, please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you might be interested in exploring When the Window Refused to Fly, and The Arch Decided to Hold the Sky by Asma Belhamar.
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