Born and raised in Tehran (1979), Nazgol Ansarinia examines the systems and networks that underpin her daily life. In her work, she dissects, interrogates and recasts everyday objects and events to tease out their relationship with contemporary Iranian society. Her aim is to expose the inner workings of a social system by picking apart its components and reassembling them in order to reveal the collective assumptions at its core as well as its inherent rules of engagement. Ansarinia’s work is characterised by an emphasis on research and analysis, legacy of her graphic design background, as well as by her continuous engagement with critical theory. Throughout her career, she has embraced multiple media (video, 3D printed models, sculpture, drawing) and has covered subjects as varied as security policy, control/discipline, memories associated with lived spaces, urban development in Tehran (with its demolition process), patterns of Persian carpets and mirror mosaics. Her works are situated on the border between the private realm and its wider socio-economic context. The artist’s concerns have shifted from an interest in the intimacy of domestic settings to an investigation of the built environment, she has maintained an engagement with physicality and materiality. All her works still carry traces of lived experiences catalysing the hope and fears of people living in an increasingly, albeit asymmetrically, globalised world.

Nazgol Ansarinia was selected for the MOP/Parasol unit Research Residency in 2014 and was a recipient of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize in 2008. She took part in the National Pavilion of Iran at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and partecipated in the 10th & 12th Istanbul Biennial (2007 and 2011).

Selected solo shows include: Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz (2022); Pools and Voids, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan (2021); Nazgol Ansarinia: The Room Becomes a Street, Pejman Foundation, Tehran (2020); Fragments, Particles and the Mechanisms of Growth, KIOSK, Ghent (2017); Paper trail, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan (2016); Interior Renovations, Tehran, 2010, Green Cardamom, London (2011).

Selected group exhibitions include: The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10), Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (2021); Reflections: contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa, British Museum, London (2021); The Spark is You: Parasol unit in Venice, Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia, Venice (2019); Nine Iranian Artists in London, Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London (2019); Women House, Monnaie de Paris, Paris (2017); What We Know that We Don’t Know, KADIST, San Francisco (2017); Planet 9, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt (2017); Variable Dimensions, Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon (2017); Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2017); The Eighth Climate (What Does Art Do?), Gwangju Bienniale, Gwangju (2016); Schnitt Schnitt (Cut Cut), Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt (2016); DUST, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowsku Castle, Warsaw (2015); Adventure of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915-2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015); Longing Persia, Exchange and reception of art in Persia and Europe in the 17th Century & Contemporary Art from Tehran, Museum Rietberg, Zurich (2013); Safar/Voyage, The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2013); When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit (2013) and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2012).