From Tehran to Switzerland: Exploring the intersection of instinct, figure, and landscape.
Sepideh NourManesh is an Iranian visual artist currently living and working in Switzerland. Her artistic practice is shaped by the intersection of her cultural background and her continuous engagement with new environments and landscapes.
She began painting at the age of nine, initially through drawing and later through oil painting based on direct observation of landscapes and live models. This early connection to nature and the human figure continues to influence her work today.
Sepideh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering (Software) and a Master’s degree in Art Research from Tehran Art University. She has taught at several art institutions in Tehran and has been affiliated with the Tehran Art Academy.
Her work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Iran and Switzerland. Since relocating to Switzerland in 2020, she has developed an active exhibition practice, including solo exhibitions such as Passage at Galerie Vitrine in Lucerne and PRI|MO|R|DI|AL, as well as participation in several group exhibitions and art fairs.
In 2025, her work was exhibited at the Lucerne Art Museum as part of the exhibition zentral! XL, where it received significant attention. This experience also encouraged her to expand her practice toward moving image and initiate a short film project.
Her practice moves between figuration, realism, and abstraction, often developing several series simultaneously. These include landscape-based works such as Eternal Winter and After Harvest, inspired by her experiences in Switzerland and Germany, as well as an ongoing series of female figures initiated in 2012. In these works, often resembling self-portraits, solitary bodies appear in states of isolation and introspection.
Sepideh describes her process as instinctive and physical — akin to an animal marking its territory — where painting becomes a way of inhabiting and transforming space. Across her work, themes of nature, memory, the body, and the interaction between internal states and external environments remain central.
For her, artistic practice is a continuous process of transformation in which each work grows from the previous one, reflecting an ongoing search for deeper expression and connection with the surrounding world.