biography

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.

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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).

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images

Dissolving Substances

Dissolving Substances, 2020

2 channel video

3'

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Installation view at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via A. Stradella 7, Milan, 2021

Fragment 1, Demolishing buildings, buying waste, 2017

Video

6' 15"

Fragment 2, Demolishing buildings, buying waste, 2017

Video

6' 15"

Untitled. Demolishing buildings. Buying Waste, 2016

Ink and marker on paper

29,5 × 42 cm

Untitled. Demolishing buildings. Buying Waste, 2016

Ink and marker on paper

29,5 × 42 cm

Untitled. Demolishing buildings. Buying Waste, 2016

Ink and marker on paper

29,5 × 42 cm

Installation view of Nazgol Ansarinia – Paper Trail, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 4, Milan, 2016

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Installation view at Present Future, Artissima, Turin, 2016

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Living room

Living room, 2005

Video

6'

View No 1, residential building / belvedere & garden on Resalat highway, Fabrications, 2017

Silkscreen

50 × 50 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

View No 2, residential building / belvedere & garden on Resalat highway, Fabrications, 2017

Silkscreen

50 × 50 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

The breaking of a ceramic brick No1, Demolishing buildings, Buying Waste, 2017

Blind print

50 × 43 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

The breaking of a ceramic brick No1, Demolishing buildings, Buying Waste, 2017 (detail)

Blind print

50 × 43 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

The breaking of a ceramic brick No2, Demolishing buildings, Buying Waste, 2017

Blind print

50 × 43 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

The breaking of a ceramic brick No2, Demolishing buildings, Buying Waste, 2017 (detail)

Blind print

50 × 43 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

public exhibitions

Kunstumeum Liechtenstein

Vaduz

C4

19.5 – 4.9.2022

© Nazgol Ansarinia / Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein. Photo: Sandra Maier

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art - (APT10)

4.12.2021 – 25.4.2022

Image courtesy: QAGOMA. Photographer: Marc Pricop /  Natasha Harth

Asia Society Museum

New York

Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians

10.9.2021 – 10.1.2022

© Bruce M. White

Argo Factory

Pejman Foundation

Teheran

The Room Becomes a Street

10.1 – 10.4.2020

Argo Factory

Pejman Foundation

Teheran

The Room Becomes a Street

10.1 – 10.4.2020

Argo Factory

Pejman Foundation

Teheran

The Room Becomes a Street

10.1 – 10.4.2020

Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello

Venice

THE SPARK IS YOU: Parasol Unit in Venice

9.5 – 23.11.2019

Photo: Francesco Allegretto

Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello

Venice

THE SPARK IS YOU: Parasol Unit in Venice

9.5 – 23.11.2019

Photo: Francesco Allegretto

Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello

Venice

THE SPARK IS YOU: Parasol Unit in Venice

9.5 – 23.11.2019

Photo: Francesco Allegretto

Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art

London

Nine Iranian Artists in London: The Spark Is You

22.5 – 8.9.2019

Photo: Benjamin Westoby

Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art

London

Nine Iranian Artists in London: The Spark Is You

22.5 – 8.9.2019

Photo: Benjamin Westoby

Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art

London

Nine Iranian Artists in London: The Spark Is You

22.5 – 8.9.2019

Photo: Benjamin Westoby

Castlefield Gallery

Manchester

UnDoing

22.3 – 26.5.2019

Monnaie de Paris

Paris

Women House

20.10.2017 – 28.1.2018

Photo © Monnaie de Paris – Romain Darnaud

KIOSK

Ghent

Fragments, Particles and the Mechanisms of Growth

2.12.2017 – 4.2.2018

Photo: Tom Callemin

KIOSK

Ghent

Fragments, Particles and the Mechanisms of Growth

2.12.2017 – 4.2.2018

Photo: Tom Callemin

KIOSK

Ghent

Fragments, Particles and the Mechanisms of Growth

2.12.2017 – 4.2.2018

Photo: Tom Callemin

KIOSK

Ghent

Fragments, Particles and the Mechanisms of Growth

2.12.2017 – 4.2.2018

Photo: Tom Callemin

KIOSK

Ghent

Fragments, Particles and the Mechanisms of Growth

2.12.2017 – 4.2.2018

Photo: Tom Callemin

KIOSK

Ghent

Fragments, Particles and the Mechanisms of Growth

2.12.2017 – 4.2.2018

Photo: Tom Callemin

11th Gwangju Biennale

Korea

The Eighth Climate (What does art do

2.9 – 6.11.2016

press

Nazgol Ansarinia’s sculptures are sprinkled with the flecks of memory and desire

Dilpreet Bhullar

STIRworld

January 02, 2022

Preview: Pools and Voids

In dialogue with Raffaella Cortese and the artist Nazgol Ansarinia

Camilla Stecca

That's Contemporary

February 4, 2021

Nazgol Ansarinia: When Memories Are Bound to Vanish

Yasmin Rahmanzadeh

This Orient Vol. 3 – The Greater Middle East

April 2020

L'invasione dell'Iran

Emanuele Magri

Juliet

October-November 2019

10 Iranian Artists Who Are Shaping Contemporary Art

Leila Sajjadi

Artsy

September 17, 2019

The Construction

Tahereh Sariban

Harper's Bazaar

Spring 2017

Nazgol Ansarinia

Maria Lind

ArtReview Asia

June 2016

Ana Mendieta and Nazgol Ansarinia, Galleria Raffaella Cortese

Ginevra Bria

Aesthetica

April 11, 2016

publications

C (to the power of) 4

Contributions by Giuseppe Garrera, Rindon Johnson, Hamed Khosravi, Letizia Ragaglia, Susana Vargas Cervantes,

Mousse Publishing,

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz

2022

Nazgol Ansarinia. Inquiries Into the Present

Ed. Phillip Griffith, text(s) by Media Farzin, Hamed Khosravi, Maria Lind, Murtaza Vali, graphic design by Aryn Beitz

Hatje Cantz Verlag

Stuttgart

2021

The Spark is You

Edited by Ziba Ardalan

Parasol Unit

London

2019

Women House

Flavia Frigeri, Camille Morineau, Gill Perry, Lucia Pesapane, Gabriele Schor and Giovanna Zapperi

Manuella Editions

Paris

2017

The Great Game: Art, artists and culture from the Heart of the World

Marco Meneguzzo, Mazdak Faiznia

Silvana Editoriale

2015

When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes

Edited and with introduction by Jens Hoffmann. Text by Constance Lewallen, Julian Myers, Christian Rattemeyer. Interview by Harald Szeemann, Jens Hoffmann.

CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

California

2013

Abraaj Capital Art Prize

Abraaj Group

Dubai

2009

video


Nazgol Ansarinia - Inquiries into the Present. Virtual Book Launch and Dialogue

2022

Speakers: Nazgol Ansarinia; Aryn Beitz; Hamed Khosravi; Letizia Ragaglia; Murtaza Vali.


Join the Curator: A Conversation with Artist Nazgol Ansarinia

2021

Carol Huh, curator of contemporary art at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, in conversation with Nazgol Ansarinia


Nazgol Ansarinia about “Fragments, Particles and the Mechanisms of Growth”

2017

Video and montage by Eva Giolo. Courtesy Kiosk Ghent.

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