Published April 9, 2026

REVIEW: "Landless", by Marjan Khorramgolkaran

Review By: Deirdre Harder

Zoom image: "The Last Wave", 2026, fused glass with hand-placed stringer. art panels made on glass rectangles with wave patterns, with a person standing in front of them and holding their phone up to photograph the art.

"The Last Wave", 2026, fused glass with hand-placed stringer.

Review

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 20th to April 17th, 2026.

A handful of people stand in a gallery with wood floors, white walls.

"Landless" reception at Hallwalls, March 20, 2026

Zoom image: "The Last Wave", 2026, etching and aquatint on paper Black and white art print of a wave of water, in a black frame.

"The Last Wave", 2026, etching and aquatint on paper

Zoom image: Large crowd of people standing in an art gallery with projection and glass plate art on the back walls. Large crowd of people standing in an art gallery with projection and glass plate art on the back walls.
Zoom image: white walls art gallery with shades of blue artworks on the walls white walls art gallery with shades of blue artworks on the walls.
Zoom image: people standing in an art gallery with white walls and wood floors, and shades of blue artworks on the walls people standing in an art gallery with white walls and wood floors, and shades of blue artworks on the walls.
Zoom image: Two artworks of blue and black glass shards fused on a cream glass panel, hanging on white wall with a person looking at them Two artworks of blue and black glass shards fused on a cream glass panel, hanging on white wall with a person looking at them.
Zoom image: Artist Marjan Khorramgolkaran in front of "The Last Wave", 2026 Woman stands in front of art panels made on glass rectangles with wave patterns.

Artist Marjan Khorramgolkaran in front of "The Last Wave", 2026

Zoom image: projection of wave art print on a white wall, with cyanotype printed strips on the rear wall projection of wave art print on a white wall, with cyanotype printed strips on the rear wall.
Zoom image: people standing in an art gallery with white walls and wood floors, and shades of blue artworks on the walls people standing in an art gallery with white walls and wood floors, and shades of blue artworks on the walls.
Zoom image: Two artworks of blue and black glass shards fused on a cream glass panel, hanging on white wall with a person looking at them Two artworks of blue and black glass shards fused on a cream glass panel, hanging on white wall with a person looking at them.
Zoom image: white walls art gallery with shades of blue artworks on the walls white walls art gallery with shades of blue artworks on the walls.
Zoom image: white wall art gallery with shades of blue small artworks hung around the room white wall art gallery with shades of blue small artworks hung around the room.

Revised: May 5, 2026