Panni Malek is an Iranian Los Angeles based artist working out of her studio in the DTLA Arts District. She is a clothing designer and figurative oil painter navigating how to free herself from a sexually repressive past. She evaluates human vulnerability, embarrassment, myopia, objectification, sexuality, and metathesiophobia. By extracting elements from personal experiences which elicit sentiments of incredible discomfort and embarrassment, she aims for an asthenopic resolution. “I explore the lack of mutual exclusivity between a delicate profanity with a certain over-passivity.”