NEW YORK, NY.- Asya Geisberg Gallery announced the representation of Orkideh Torabi and Susan Hamburger.
Orkideh Torabi's inaugural exhibition at the gallery, "Kings and Conquerors," was followed by a vibrant booth at NADA New York. Torabi's work was recently included in a two-person booth at The Armory Show with SARAI Gallery in September 2025. In 2021, she had a solo exhibition at the The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL.
Torabi received an MA and BFA from The University of Art, Tehran, Iran, and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, with solo exhibitions at Nino Mier Gallery, Brussels, Belgium; Half Gallery, New York, NY; Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL; and Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Her work has been reviewed by The New York Times, AnOther Magazine, Canvas Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Gallery Magazine, Elephant Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Hyperallergic, and Juxtapoz.
Torabis paintings explore personal narratives and societal norms, challenging traditional ideas of gender, power, and identity. She grounds her work in the style of Persian miniatures and epics with tales of heroic exploits of kings and warriors. In Torabis world, however, men become dependent, vulnerable, and without purpose. Rigid geometric patterns, a sign of authority and tradition, contrast with pleasing tension to the rounded cartoonish style of the figures. Torabis technique is time-consuming, and prone to imperfections: she paints on a screen with dye and then transfers the image onto canvas. Each color is masked and printed separately, so that sometimes a work has nearly a hundred layers of paint.
Following her exhibition at the gallery, "Near Enemies," Susan Hamburger's paper-clay sculptures will be on view at The Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, NC in "Art on Paper: The 48th Edition," August 29, 2026 - April 18, 2027. She recently completed the 2026 Anita Wetzel Residency at The Womens Studio Workshop, Kingston, NY.
She holds a BA in Fine Art from Brandeis University, an MFA in Visual Art from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, and MA in Art Education from The City College of New York, CUNY. Awards and residencies include: Dieu Donné Papermill, The National Academy Abbey Mural Workshop, Aljira, Ucross, Jentel, Saltonstall, The Millay Colony, PS122, Abrons Art Center, and Chashama. Solos include: The Wassaic Project, Auxiliary Projects, The Gallery at 1GAP, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Tomasulo Gallery at Union County College, and Cheryl McGinnis Gallery. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Hyperallergic, Apartment Therapy, and Better Homes & Gardens.
Hamburger has long worked with politics and history as her subject, in the language of Western European decorative arts. Her medieval-style banner paintings re-imagine the chivalrous, performative function of embellished artifacts of military glory. Delicate helmet sculptures made of papier mâché and paper clay, are utterly useless to protect or even intimidate. The sculptures push the frivolity and decorative excess into absurdityadding yet more animal, floral, or fantastical elements.