Shirazeh Houshiary rose to prominence in the 1980s as part of a group of young sculptors, including Anish Kapoor (b. 1954) and Richard Deacon (b. 1949), practicing in Britain. In addition to her sculptural works and installations, Houshiary is known for her meticulous drawings and paintings of amorphous geometrical bodies and membranes that appear posed between transformative states. Houshiary is deeply inspired by Sufism, particularly the work of 13th-century Sufi poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, whose words she often interlaces into her images in an extremely time and labor intensive process. These drawn images that incorporate Arabic calligraphic script can take the artist between six to seven weeks to finish as she carefully traces over the words in graphite, intently focused yet lost in the repetitious nature of the act. Fusing her Persian heritage with arcs of Western contemporary art, Houshiary's work ultimately reflects an inward quest of the artist, who has "...set out to capture my breath," to "find the essence of my own existence, transcending name, nationality, cultures."[1]

Houshiary was born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1955, and moved to London in 1974. She studied at the Chelsea School of Art, London (1976–1979), and upon graduating went to Cardiff School of Art and Design as a Junior Fellow in 1979–1980. She was a Turner Prize nominee in 1994. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Le Magasin (Centre National d'Art Contemporain), Grenoble, France; University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Camden Arts Centre, London; Musée Rath, Geneva; Lisson Gallery, London; and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, among others. Selected group exhibitions include 40th Venice Biennale; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Houshiary's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; British Council Collection, London; and Tate Modern, London, among others. Houshiary lives and works in London.

CEJ

[1] "Shirazeh Houshiary," Lisson Gallery, accessed June 4, 2015, http://www.lissongallery.com/artists/shirazeh-houshiary.