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Shirazeh Houshiary

Since rising to prominence as a sculptor in the 1980s, Shirazeh Houshiary’s practice has swelled to encompass painting, installation, architectural projects and film. “I set out to capture my breath,” she said in 2000, to “find the essence of my own existence, transcending name, nationality, cultures.” Veils, membranes and mists are leitmotifs in work that tries to visualise modes of perception, spanning the scientific and the cosmic while drawing on sources as wide-ranging as Sufism, Renaissance painting, contemporary physics and poetry. Houshiary finds succour in the transformation of material: Arabic words, one an affirmation the other a denial, are pencil-stroked onto canvas so lightly, and clouded over by finely wrought skeins of pigment, that they morph in front of the naked eye and defy reproduction. So too, aluminium armatures and elliptical brick towers, charged with dynamic tension, appear different from every angle, as if negating their own presence; her commission for the East window of St Martin in the Fields, London, presents a cross, warped and spanning from a circular motif, as if reflected in water. “The universe is in a process of disintegration,” she says, “everything is in a state of erosion, and yet we try to stabilise it. This tension fascinates me and it’s at the core of my work” (2013).

Shirazeh Houshiary was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1955, where she attended university before moving to London, UK in 1974. She has a BA from Chelsea School of Art (1979) and lives and works in London, UK. She became a Royal Academician in 2022. She has had solo exhibitions at the Long Museum, Shanghai, China (2023), Lisson Gallery, London (2021), Shanghai (2020), and New York (2017); Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore (2016); The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (2007); Tate Liverpool, UK (2003); Islamic Gallery, British Museum, London, UK (1997); Magasin-Centre national d’art contemporain, Grenoble, France (1995); University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA (1994); Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (1993); Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland (1988); and in 2013, her exhibition ‘Breath’ was a celebrated Collateral Event of the 55th Venice Biennale in Italy. 

Recent group exhibitions include: ‘No Forms’ (curated by Margot Norton), The Hill Art Foundation, New York, NY, USA (2022); ‘Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945: An Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition’, The Levinsky Gallery, The Arts Institute, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK; Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK (2021-2022); ‘Artists and the Rothko Chapel: 50 Years of Inspiration’, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA (2021); ‘Abstraction and Calligraphy − Towards a Universal Language’, Louvre Abu Dhabi in collaboration with Centre Pompidou, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2021); ‘Spirit and Endeavour’, Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury, UK (2020); Jesus College, Cambridge, UK (2017); Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini, Collezione Burri, Citta di Castello, Perugia, Italy (2016); University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI, USA (2014). Her work has been included in major group exhibitions since the 1980s including: Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH, USA (2011); Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA (2007); Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy (2002); Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands (1990); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (1989); Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark (1986). She has also participated in numerous biennials including Cartagena deIndias, Colombia (2014); Kiev Biennale, Ukraine (2012); the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2010); and the 40th Venice Biennale, Italy (1982). She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1994.

 

Recent, current and forthcoming projects

'Shirazeh Houshiary: Rhizome', The Long Museum, Shanghai, China (5 March – 7 May 2023)

 

Time Curve
Time Curve
Rhizome
Rhizome
Rhizome
Rhizome
Rhizome
Rhizome
Maelstrom
Maelstrom
Zygote
Zygote
Cygnus
Cygnus
Just So
Tempest
Tempest
Cleave
Cleave
The Songs of the Earth
The Songs of the Earth
The Loom of Time
The Loom of Time
Seif
Chimera
Chimera
Mind and Matter
Mind and Matter
Duet
Iris
Alar
Umbra
Allegory of Sight
Veil
Flux
Deep
String Quintet
Flood
Swift
Flit
Christmas Tree
Right of Spring
Exuviae
Between
Commission for St Martin-in-the- Fields, London
Bloom
Deluge
Chrysalis
Mirage, 2017
Only a Flicker
Only a Flicker
Only a Flicker

Shirazeh Houshiary
Time Curve

2023
Pigment and pencil and black Aquacryl on canvas and aluminium
120 x 120 x 4 cm
47 1/4 x 47 1/4 x 1 5/8 in

Museum Exhibitions

Exhibitions

  1. Shirazeh Houshiary: The Sound of One Hand - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary: The Sound of One Hand

    14 September – 2 November 2024

  2. Shirazeh Houshiary - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary

    18 August – 28 August 2022

  3. Portals - past exhibition

    Portals

    10 February – 9 April 2022

  4. Shirazeh Houshiary: Pneuma - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary: Pneuma

    22 June – 31 July 2021

  5. Selected works in London - past exhibition

    Selected works in London

    8 December 2020 – 12 January 2021

  6. Shirazeh Houshiary: As Time Stood Still - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary: As Time Stood Still

    11 September – 24 October 2020

  7. Shirazeh Houshiary - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary

    10 September – 20 September 2020

  8. Shirazeh Houshiary: Nothing is deeper than the skin - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary: Nothing is deeper than...

    3 November – 22 December 2017

  9. Shirazeh Houshiary: Smell of First Snow - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary: Smell of First Snow

    22 May – 4 July 2015

  10. Shirazeh Houshiary: Breath - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary: Breath

    1 June – 24 November 2013

  11. Shirazeh Houshiary - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary

    6 June – 27 July 2012

  12. Shirazeh Houshiary: No Boundary Condition - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary: No Boundary Condition

    12 October – 12 November 2011

  13. Shirazeh Houshiary: Self Portraits - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary: Self Portraits

    20 September – 21 October 2000

  14. Shirazeh Housiary: The Sense of Unity - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Housiary: The Sense of Unity

    16 September – 15 October 1994

  15. Shirazeh Houshiary: Isthmus - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary: Isthmus

    8 May – 20 June 1992

  16. Shirazeh Houshiary: Breath: Recent Sculpture - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary: Breath: Recent Sculpture

    28 September – 31 October 1987

  17. Shirazeh Houshiary - past exhibition

    Shirazeh Houshiary

    11 October – 3 November 1984

Shop

  1. Nothing is deeper than the skin

    Nothing is deeper than the skin

  2. Smell of First Snow

    Smell of First Snow

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