Curator Tour: List Projects 32: Elif Saydam

August 13, 2025
Event Types
Exhibition Tour
A blue cinder block-patterned painting wraps from scaffolding to the wall; a painted mirror and three other paintings hang throughout the gallery.

Exhibition view: List Projects 32: Elif Saydam, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2025. Photo: Julia Featheringill

For more information, contact:

listprograms [at] mit.edu

Please join Curatorial Assistant, Zach Ngin for an exhibition walk through of List Projects 32: Elif Saydam

Saydam’s paintings are rich with references to the history of the medium, particularly so-called “minor” genres like miniature painting and illuminated manuscripts. Their textual sources are equally eclectic, ranging from twelfth-century Persian poetry and Larry Mitchell’s The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions (1977) to the slogans of contemporary social movements. Saydam also experiments with painting on unconventional surfaces and supports, including antique bathroom stall doors, anti-shoplifting mirrors, and kitchen sponges. 

This tour will uncover the historical and art historical references at play in their detailed work on view.