Sekhmet, hand-tufted acrylic rug, 3.4 x 4 ft, 2024

Sekhmet is the artist’s portrayal of the lion-headed goddess whose domains are war, pestilence, and destruction, but also healing. Floods of color rush and river into one another, fill up into forms that congeal into a body that is monstrous, shifting, beautiful, and undefined. For Kilicbeyli, the feline goddess’ rage is righteous and misunderstood; her warring answers injustices. Her eyes are all cunning. And yet she has a softness, too, a domestic or familiar kind of godliness.