Sanam Khatibi’s works deal with animality and our primal impulses, and the core of her practice interrogates our relationship to power structures, specifically the duality of triumph and failure. The recurrent themes that often feature in her work question our relation to chaos, destruction, excess, loss of control, bestiality, domination and submission. She is also interested in the thin line that exists between fear and desire, and how closely they are interrelated. 

Her subjects live on their impulses in alluring, exotic landscapes. They are ambiguous with their relationship to power, violence, sensuality and each other. She plays with ambivalence to juxtapose dualities such as animal versus human, past versus present and cruelty versus seduction. Wildlife and animals are an integral part of her practice, and her subjects are often depicted within the same plane as the flora and fauna.

Her practice consists of paintings, embroideries, tapestries, sculptures and installations.