In his new body of work Hostless, Mohammed Sami focuses predominantly on internal spaces. The paintings become a site for mnemonic processes, mental operations in which abstraction falters and something unsettling begins to seep through. Rooms become spectral containers, holding the residue of events that agreed to stay unnamed despite of the availability of the crime evidence. These interiors are literal in their unease yet evasive in meaning, trembling with a physicality that painting, as a practice, refuses to fully define or contain. Objects behave as floating signifiers, denoting an absent violence or a memory made consumable only through distance. The formal language in his new paintings allow the ‘horror’ to become an optional element for viewers, not performed, but quietly endured, revealed through the stubborn materiality of what remains.
The Fridericianum presents the first institutional exhibition of Sami’s work in Germany. It is being realized in cooperation with S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent and Moderna Museet Malmö, which will present the artist’s work in 2027 and 2028.
The exhibition at the Fridericianum is being realized with the generous support of The Nixon Foundation, AMA Collection, and The Garcia Family Foundation.
Mohammed Sami: Hostless
Oct 3, 2026 – Jan 3, 2027
Fridericianum
Kassel, Germany
