Nazgol Ansarinia examines the systems and networks that underwrite her daily life. Born and raised in Tehran, she dissects, interrogates and recasts everyday objects and events to draw out their relationships to the contemporary Iranian experience. She reveals the inner workings of a social system by taking apart its components before reassembling them to uncover collective assumptions and their underlying rules of engagement.
Her work is characterised by an emphasis on research and analysis that is a legacy of her design background, as well as by her continued engagement with critical theory. Her mode of working covers diverse media—video, 3D printed models, municipal murals and drawings—and subjects as varied as automated telephone systems, American security policy, the memories associated with a family house, and the patterns of Persian carpets.
“My work is always focused on the environment that I live in, portraying very ordinary, everyday life and my position within that context… I’m a deconstructionist who reconstructs the torn apart elements that show something new about something so banal that has gone unnoticed. So repetitive that it becomes part of routine life.” – Nazgol Ansarinia
The artist created a project with Tate Modern about her relationship with her city, Teheran – more info here
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Queensland (AU)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles (US)
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France; San Francisco (US)
CA Tate Collection, London (UK)
British Museum, London (UK)
Devi Art Foundation, Delhi (IN)
SPM (Salsali Private Museum), Dubai (AE)
Remnants, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (AE)
Demolishing buildings, buying waste, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (AE)
Fragments, Particles and the Mechanisms of Growth, KIOSK, Ghent (BE)
Paper Trail, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan (IT)
Surfaces & Solids, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (AE)
Change of Skin, Aun Gallery, Tehran (IR)
Refractions/Subtractions, Aun Gallery, Tehran (IR)
Reflections/Refractions, Daniela da Prato Gallery, Paris (FR)
Just Words, The Free Word Center, London (UK)
Interior Renovations, Green Cardamom, London (UK)
Patterns, Aun Gallery, Tehran (IR)
Patterns, Skanes Konstforening, Malmo (SE)
Untitled (do not give your opinion), Ave Gallery, Tehran (IR)
Women House, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. (US)
Women House, Monnaie de Paris, Paris (FR)
Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (US)
What We Know that We Don’t Know, KADIST, San Francisco, USA Planet 9, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Hessen (DE)
Variable Dimensions, Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon (PT)
Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians, Aga Khan Mu- seum, Toronto (CA)
The Eighth Climate (What Does Art Do?), Gwangju Bienniale, Gwangju (KR)
Schnitt Schnitt (Cut Cut), Kunsthalle Darmstadt (DE)
Metatextile: Ruptured Narratives, Exchanged Values, Edel Assanti, London (UK)
Investment Opportunities, OFFICE Gallery, Nicosia (CY)
DUST, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (PO)
The Great Game, Iranian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (IT)
Adventure of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915- 2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London (UK)
Recalling The Future: post revolutionary Iranian art, The Brunei Gallery SOAS, University of London, London (UK)
Statue of Limitation, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (AE)
Longing Persia: Exchange and reception of art in Persia and Europe in the 17th Century & Contemporary Art from Tehran, Museum Rietberg, Zurich (CH)
Safar/Voyage, The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (CA)
When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit (US)
A Permanent Record For Future Investigation, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, (AE)
Systems & Patterns, International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana (SI)
When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes, CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco (US)
Elephant in the Dark, Devi Art Foundation, Delhi (IN)
12th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul (TR)
Drawn from Life, Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal (UK)
Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah (AE)
Iran inside-out, The Farjam Collection, Dubai (AE)
Tarjama/Translation, Herbert F Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York (US)
Golden Gates, F&A projects, Paris (FR)
Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Museum of Arts and Design, New York (US)
Iran inside-out, Chelsea Art Museum, New York (US)
Made in Iran, Asia House, London (UK)
Tarjama/Translation, Queens Museum of Art, New York (US)
Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Art Dubai, Dubai, (AE)
Breaking News, F&A projects, Paris (FR)
Drawn from Life: process, Green Cardamom, London (UK)
Nightcomers, 10th Istanbul Biennial (TU)
Retracing Territories, fri-art Centre d’Art Contemporain, Fribourg (CH)
Books on Buses in collaboration with black dogs, Situation Leeds 07 Festival, Leeds (UK)
Unidee in progress, Cittadellarte, Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella (IT)
Transition, Azad Gallery, Tehran (IR)
1111, degree show, CCA, San Francisco (US)
MOP/Parasol Unit Research Residency, London (UK)
Recipient of Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Dubai (AE)
Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative, finalist and the receiver of the finalist grant (CH)
Recipient of the nkd “One artist in residence outside the Nordic region” grant, Dale (NO)
Unidee artist in residence, Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella (IT)
Selected artist-in-residence by The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York (US)
Merit scholarship, California College of the Arts, San Francisco (US)
Gwangju Bienniale, Gwangju (KR)
The Great Game, Iranian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (IT)
