Ed Cross Fine Art and Kiani Tea are pleased to present Where the Soul Finds its Home, a focused yet resonant exhibition of paintings by British-Iranian artist Sara Shamsavari.

Shamsavari is widely recognised for her photographic practice exploring transnational identity, freedom of expression, and the subversion of narrow definitions of gender, race, orientation, and faith. Her painting practice, while related, turns inward: a space for processing the personal and lifelong trauma rooted in her early experiences of war and displacement.

As with many artists from South-West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), Shamsavari’s work emerges from the intertwined realities of exile, resilience, and escape from dictatorship, as well as the persistent misrepresentation of her heritage and culture. At its core, the work speaks to universal themes of loss, separation, and the search for belonging shared by refugees and migrants worldwide.

Each canvas contains fragments of Farsi text — at times urgent and insistent, at others fragile and elusive. Gold, silver, and copper leaf intertwine with pumice, acrylic, salt, and lemon, creating surfaces that mirror the extremes endured by those forced to seek refuge. The often-obscured words gesture to absence, erasure, and the precarious nature of existence itself.

Amid a climate of growing polarisation in the UK, Shamsavari’s paintings find a fitting resonance within Kiani Tea — a space that, like her work, honours Persian heritage and sustains rituals of resilience that endure across time, place, and generations.

Sara Shamsavari

Sara Shamsavari is a British-Iranian artist whose work spans photography and painting, shaped by her early experiences of war, displacement, and survival. Twice overcoming life-threatening illness, she returned to painting with renewed force in 2023.Her photography explores global identity, inclusion, and transformation, often in dialogue with participants from migrant backgrounds, while her paintings turn inward, weaving Persian heritage with the refugee experience.For over two decades, Shamsavari’s work has been exhibited internationally in museums and public spaces including Museo Bardini (Florence), the Royal Festival Hall and City Hall (London), and the British Embassy (Tehran). Her works have been published in Aperture, The Guardian, and The New York Times, and are held in major collections worldwide. She lectures in art history at Central Saint Martins and Chelsea College of Art.

Ed Cross Fine Art.

Since 2009, Ed Cross has worked with emerging and established artists across and beyond the African diaspora and Global south. The gallery seeks to stage conversations – between practitioners, international audiences and as guided by its artists – to amplify voices historically silenced, and to create space for their independent development.

Kiani Tea

Housed within the Royal Exchange, Kiani Tea is a brand built on a century-old heritage of craftsmanship and passion for the nation’s favourite drink. Continuing a legacy that goes back to the owner’s great-grandfather — a renowned Persian tea merchant who used a horse-drawn carriage to deliver fresh Gilan harvests to Russia — the company’s mission is to follow his path: and bring the finest hand-crafted teas “straight from the source” to enthusiasts worldwide.

SARA SHAMSAVARI WHERE THE SOUL FINDS ITS HOME

SARA SHAMSAVARI

WHERE THE SOUL FINDS ITS HOME