September 13 – November 11, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 13 | 5:00 – 8:00 PM
Location: McMahon Gallery
In Concrete Contrast: A Story of Withheld Spring is a deeply personal and poetic exhibition by
Boulder-based artist Samira Hemmat. Through drawing, embossing, and printmaking, Hemmat
offers a body of work shaped by longing, displacement, and the quiet weight of absence. Each
piece is a letter written in the dark, though no words appear on the surface, it is an intimate
language of pressure, silence, and touch.
Navigating the space between two lives—one left behind and one unfolding—Hemmat’s
practice gives rise to images that are both personal and universal rooted in contrast, conflict, and
juxtaposition. Her images are born from tension: between love and anger, light and fear,
belonging and separation. Rather than offer resolution, the work invites viewers into the quiet
space of emotional complexity, where feelings remain raw, unresolved, and profoundly human.
Using repetition, subtle textures, and restrained mark-making, Hemmat channels grief, longing,
and hope into forms that veil as much as they reveal. The visible and invisible live side by
side—what is drawn, and what is merely pressed into the paper—honoring both what is spoken
and what is held in silence. In these works, longing becomes its own language, and art
becomes an act of healing, connection, and remembrance.
About the Artist
Samira Hemmat is a visual artist based in Boulder, Colorado. Her work explores the tension between presence and absence through drawing, embossing, and printmaking. Often inspired by dreams, memories, and photographs of her homeland, she creates work that reflects both what is seen and what remains unsaid.
Hemmat holds an MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Colorado Boulder (2023) and a BFA from Tehran Azad University of Art and Architecture. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She is a member of Artnauts and currently teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder.