Shirazeh Houshiary on episode #3 of The Frieze Masters Podcast: The Power of Painting

7 January 2025

‘The viewer makes the painting alive. Without the viewer, that thing doesn't exist.’ – Shirazeh Houshiary

What happens to our understanding of painting when we expand the canon across eras and cultures? In the third episode of the Frieze Masters Podcast, artist Shirazeh Houshiary, Director of the National Gallery Gabriele Finaldi and arts editor Jan Dalley reflect on the celebration and subversion of narrative through painting.

Shirazeh Houshiary is an Iran-born, London-based artist, working in painting and sculpture; Gabriele Finaldi is Director of the National Gallery in London; and Jan Dalley is the former Arts Editor at the Financial Times. This year, Lisson Gallery participated at Frieze Masters with a special display of work by Shirazeh Houshiary who, for the first time, presented both historic and recent works together in one presentation.

The Frieze Masters Podcast in collaboration with dunhill showcases the annual Frieze Masters Talks programme recorded during this year’s 2024 fair. The series of seven discussions was curated by Sheena Wagstaff and Shanay Jhaveri, with the title ‘The Creative Mind’, and features 21 intergenerational and international speakers exploring how the art of the past can help make sense of the present.

Listen to the podcast here.

Shown here: Shirazeh Houshiary, Rite of Passage, 2024, Pigment and pencil on Aquacryl on canvas and aluminium, 190 x 190 cm, 74 3/4 x 74 3/4 in © Shirazeh Houshiary, courtesy Lisson Gallery