Selma Selman
Self-portrait (Two Women), 2017

Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Collection

Color pencil on paper
29.7 x 21 cm

As someone who has dual nationality, and lives as an immigrant in the USA, I am constantly faced with the effects and pressures of conflicting identities which I have begun expressing through artworks. With my body and identities - Roma, female and immigrant, I can become anything necessary as the circumstance demands. Similar to the impossible situation in which I am, I become my opponent, my trainer, and my hero. – Selma Selman

Selma Selman (b.1991) is from Bosnia and Herzegovina and is of Romani origin. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2014 from Banja Luka University’s Department of Painting. In 2018, she graduated from Syracuse University with a Master of Fine Arts in Transmedia, Visual, and Performing Arts. 

In her artworks, the ultimate aim is to protect and enable female bodies and enact a cross-scalar approach to the collective self-emancipation of oppressed women. Selma’s search for functional, contemporary political resistance stems from her experience with oppression from various directions and scales. Selman also founded ”Get The Heck To School,” which aims to empower Roma girls worldwide who faced ostracization from society and poverty. 

Selma Selman lives and works in Bihac, BIH, and New York, USA.

CURRENT LOANS

Group show: Remedios
Venue: C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba
Curator: Daniela Zyman
Exhibition 14 April 2023 -  March 2024