About the artist
Melika (b. 1998, Tehran), widely known as Melzarts, is a multidisciplinary artist based in the UAE. Raised in Dubai and educated at NYU in Art and Art History, with studies in Film and Animation at Tisch School of the Arts, her work spans painting, installation, sculpture, animation, and photography.
Melika’s practice is deeply introspective and emotionally charged, often centered around transitional moments, inner shifts, and the quiet weight of memory. Her art reflects the richness of her Persian heritage, her upbringing in Dubai, and the personal experiences that shaped her during her time across New York, Paris, and Abu Dhabi. Through bold colors, flowing forms, and poetic compositions, Melika explores the invisible threads that bind us to objects, spaces, and emotions. Her work often gives ordinary items like a blanket, a birthday cake, or a wilting flower, a powerful emotional presence. Themes of belonging, nostalgia, comfort, loss, and spiritual poetics echo throughout her evolving body of work.
Melika has exhibited her work at several group exhibitions, including at Ras Al Khaimah Fine Arts Festival 2025, Rizq Art Initiative as part of the 2025 Seen/Scene exhibition, New York University Abu Dhabi project space, Sikka Art Fair 2023 organized by Dubai Culture, Firetti Gallery in Alserkal Avenue as part of the NBF Art Prize shortlisted artists exhibition, and Noon Art Award shortlisted artists’ exhibition, where her painting titled Grey won the award in the painting category. Her animation short titled ‘The Lockdown’ was also chosen as the opening film at the annual Tisch animation film festival in New York, in 2022.
Melika’s work has been featured in major national and international publications, including Cosmopolitan, Khamsah, The National, Broadway On Demand, Magzoid, Gulf News, and Al Bayan, alongside others.
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In hindsight, everything is just a thing until you give meaning to it, isn’t it? But what is the point of it all if we don’t? My work explores nostalgia and embraces giving meaning to moments and objects.
I hope my art brings you comfort, and inspires you to see the good, the beauty, the kindness, the magic, and the wonder in the world. I hope it inspires you to embrace life and all that it brings, and perhaps, reflect on what has shaped your perspective.”
-Melzarts
“.چشمهارا باید شست. جوره دیگر باید دید”
“We must wash our eyes. we must see in a new way”
- Sohrab Sepehri, Persian Poet And Painter
My work is not about making bold declarations, but rather about quietly making sense of the world around and within us. It is rooted in deep observation—of moments, feelings, and the subtle shifts in how we perceive our experiences and surroundings. I am drawn to the ordinary: objects, people, places, and the spaces between them, and through these, I explore how our understanding and emotions are shaped and transformed. My art reflects the quiet, often overlooked transitions in life—loss, belonging, comfort, and the search for meaning—and embraces the complexity of human experience without forcing easy answers. It is a process of witnessing and honoring the layers of memory and emotion that shape how we connect to ourselves and the world.
Take, for example, my recent triptych, Blanket. On the surface, it may appear as simple paintings of fabric—three wooden panels, each painted in one of the three primary colors: blue, yellow, and red. But these colors flow and merge, connected yet distinct, each evoking a different and intense emotion.
This piece is a meditation on the months spent in lockdown, in a city that felt unfamiliar and isolating. The blanket, a constant companion, traveled with me from place to place—offering warmth, comfort, and a quiet anchor amid uncertainty. I think of the countless hours spent under it, attending classes, seeking refuge, and processing the overwhelming emotions of that time. It is the very same blanket I sit on now as I write this.
Color is an essential language in my work. While I once questioned its importance, it has become clear that vibrant hues are the most direct way to communicate the emotions that dwell beneath the surface.
Whether through colored pencils, oil and acrylic paint, clay, film, photography, or animation, colors and flows are the threads that connects my diverse explorations.
Flow and movement are also central motifs, whether in the folds of fabric, the drip of paint, or the rhythm of shapes, inviting a sense of quiet contemplation. These flows carry a subtle echo of poetry and mysticism, inspired in part by the spiritual traditions I have encountered, like the whirling dervishes, which embody transformation through motion.
Above all, I want my work to be a space for immersion, to invite viewers to lose themselves momentarily, to feel deeply, and to reflect on their own perceptions and memories. I want my work to invite you in – to pause, feel, and perhaps see something familiar in a new light, connecting quietly with your own memories and emotions.
