Ricky Alikhani

Ricky Alikhani (b. 1999) is a contemporary artist based in Sussex. His practice engages with life, death, and consciousness, focusing on the conditions through which reality is experienced and how perception is shaped and constrained by the senses.

Working primarily in oil on linen, he produces precise, hand-painted abstract compositions inspired by DNA barcoding. Created without mechanical aids, the works maintain a tension between control and imperfection, where small inconsistencies accumulate into less predictable forms. While visually restrained, they draw on the logic of genetic structures, in which fixed parameters generate variation through repetition.

The recurring “barcode” motif functions as a form of portraiture, less a representation of identity than an interface with the systems that produce it. Across the practice, Alikhani constructs experience from what cannot be perceived, visualising what fundamentally resists being seen. The work operates less as representation than as an interface through which underlying systems are approached but never fully resolved.

Alongside painting, Alikhani engages in interdisciplinary research into perception and cognition. The Perceptual Reverie series translates sound and neural activity into visual form, reflecting the layered construction of experience through mediation rather than direct access.

Within this framework, the Genetic Portal series extends these concerns in a more direct and reflective form. Influenced by Buddhist mandalas as systems for meditation and sustained attention, the works establish a structured space for focusing on a single idea or state. Framed as “genetic portals,” they invite reflection on genetics, the body, and the constructed nature of perception.

Across the practice, meaning remains open and unresolved, defined by a gap between what the work contains and what can be perceived.