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 has had solo exhibitions at 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: ‘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.

Shirazeh Houshiary
Mind and Matter

2020
Pigment and pencil on white Aquacryl on canvas and aluminium 120 x 120 x 5.5 cm 47 1/8 x 47 1/8 x 2 1/8 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Mind and Matter

2020
Pigment and pencil on white Aquacryl on canvas and aluminium 120 x 120 x 5.5 cm 47 1/8 x 47 1/8 x 2 1/8 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Duet

2020
Cast aluminium and paint 112.8 x 130 x 40 cm 44 3/8 x 51 1/8 x 15 3/4 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Iris

2019
Pigment and pencil on black Aquacryl on canvas and aluminium 120 x 120 x 5.5 cm 47 1/8 x 47 1/8 x 2 1/8 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Alar

2016
Glass and mirror-polished stainless steel 145 x 118 x 118 cm 57 1/8 x 46 1/2 x 46 1/2 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Umbra

2019
Pencil and pigment on black Aquacryl on canvas and aluminium 120 x 120 cm 47 1/8 x 47 1/8 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Allegory of Sight

2015
Cast painted stainless steel 43 x 120 x 43 cm 17 x 47 1/4 x 17 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Veil

2002
White Aquacryl with pigment and pencil on canvas 190 x 190 cm 74 3/4 x 74 3/4 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Flux

2015
Glass bricks and stainless steel rings 135 cm height x 89 cm diameter 53 1/8 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Deep

2010
Blue, pink and lilac pencil and pigments on black Aquacryl on canvas and aluminium 190 x 270 cm 74 3/4 x 106 1/4 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
String Quintet

2011
Cast stainless steel Height 500 cm Height 196 7/8 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Flood

2010
Blue pencil with black and white aquacryl on canvas and aluminium 270 x 190 cm 106 1/4 x 74 3/4 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Swift

2016
Cast aluminium 132 x 84.5 x 35.2 cm 52 x 33 1/4 x 13 7/8 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Flit

2017
Pigment and pencil on white Aquacryl on canvas on aluminium (triptych) 190 cm x 270 x 5 cm (each panel) 74 3/4 x 106 1/4 x 2 in (each panel) 190 x 810 x 5 cm (overall) 74 3/4 x 318 7/8 x 2 in (overall)

Shirazeh Houshiary
Christmas Tree

2016/1993
Tree and gold leaf Photograph courtesy Joe Humphreys, Tate Photography.

Shirazeh Houshiary
Right of Spring

2012
Pencil, pigment and black Aquacryl on canvas and aluminium 190 x 190 cm 74 7/8 x 74 7/8 in

Shirazeh Houshiary
Exuviae

2016-2017
Glass and mirror-polished stainless steel 291.8 x 37.5 x 28 cm 114 7/8 x 14 3/4 x 11 in Installation image: Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans Museum of Art. Photography: Richard Sexton. Courtesy Shirazeh Houshiary.

Shirazeh Houshiary
Between

2010/2011
White pencil, red and white pigment with white Aquacryl on black Aquacryl ground on canvas and aluminium panel 190 x 540 cm (diptych) 74.8 x 212.6 in (diptych)