REVIEW: "Landless", by Marjan Khorramgolkaran

As you turn the corner at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, a bright wall of blue rises, and beyond it, gently undulating waves. Landless by Marjan Khorramgolkaran is an intricate examination of personal identity and material possibility; we are invited to immerse ourselves in a decades-long practice shaped by geographic displacement, memory, and the constant presence of water. Hues of blue, black, white, and gray weave throughout the exhibition, anchoring us in the surrounding seas.

Cyanotype, watercolor, fused glass, stop motion: the breadth of media in Landless is deeply contemplative and representative of the qualities of water itself. Each work spills over its edges to sweep us along in a sparkling ebb and flow. Khorramgolkaran‘s latest and most ambitious work transforms her etchings and cyanotypes into fused glass panels. The installation Landless, a floor to ceiling grid of glass panels depicting a tumultuous wave, is a painstaking recreation of her etching The Last Wave at a grand scale that towers above the viewer. And yet, I felt a strange sense of calm as light dazzled off each panel. Up close, the specks of black glass dance and tumble as they become the spray of seafoam and the roar of the tide. It appears so effortless, so natural, that you forget everything before you is carefully hand-built. 

Landless is an exhibition that feels solemn, but hopeful. Water does not belong to a single place, Khorramgolkaran reminds us. We drift together, uncertain of where we are headed, but finding community and belonging along the way. You can almost hear the crashing of waves reassure you: even without land under your feet, you can find home. 

Landless is a solo exhibition created by Khorramgolkoran for her MFA from University at Buffalo in Studio Art. See it at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center from March 20^th to April 17^th, 2026.