Shadi Ghadirian
Page 1 | Biography
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Born: 1974
Lives: Tehran, Iran
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Shadi Ghadirian was born in 1974 in Tehran, Iran. She is a photographer who continues to live and work in Iran. Ghadirian studied photography at Azad University (in Tehran). After finishing her B. A., Ghadirian began her professional career as a photographer. She says that "quite by accident", the subjects of her first two series were "women".
After finishing college, Ghadirian was inspired to make work reflecting what she saw as the duality and contradiction of life. Her Qajar Series (1998-2001) consists of small studio portraits of women dressed in the nineteenth-century Qajar style. Many of the women photographed are Ghadirian's friends and family. The backgrounds of these portraits resemble those found in photographic studios of that period. However, the artist has added some modern anomalies or dissonances, such as a mountain bike, a newspaper, or a Pepsi-Cola can. Ghadirian plays with these juxtapositions and contrasts, thus expressing the difficulties women face in Iran today - torn between tradition and the modernity of globalization. These composed portraits depict women unsure to which era they belong.
Ghadirian made her Like Every Day Series after her marriage to fellow photographer, Peyman Hooshmand-zadeh. In this body of work, Ghadirian comments upon the daily repetitive routine to which many women find themselves consigned and by which many women are defined. Each of these color photographs depicts a figure draped in patterned fabric in place of the typical Iranian chador. However, instead of a face, each figure has a common household item such as an iron, a tea cup, a broom, a pot or a pan.
Currently, Ghadirian works at the Museum of Photography in Tehran. Her work is intimately linked to her identity as a Muslim woman living in Iran. Nonetheless, her art also deals with issues relevant to women living in other parts of the world. She questions the role of women in society and explores ideas of censorship, religion, modernity, and the status of women. Ghadirian's profile in the western art world is increasing rapidly. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across Europe, and the U.S.A. She has also been featured in print and electronic media (including the New York Times, Photography Now, the Daily Telegraph, the BBC and others). Her work is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2007
Group Exhibition, "Rare Essence", aeroplastics contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
Group exhibition, CeSAC, Caraglio, Italy
2006
Group photo exhibition, Selyemes Fenyek, Budapest
Group exhibition, Le Rectangle, Lyon, France
Representation and Use of the Body in Art, Galerie Helene Lamarque, Paris
Ey Iran, Contemporary Iranian Photography, Gold Cost City Art Gallery, Australia
Image of Middle East, Dccd Copenhagen, Denmark
Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, the British Museum, London
The Veiled Mirror, Contemporary Iranian Photography, De Santos Gallery, Houton, Texas
Photo exhibition, French Cultural center, Damascus, Syria
Group Exhibition, Distinctive, Artspace Witzenhausen , Amsterdam
Group Exhibition, Blessed are the Merciful, Feigen Contemporary, New York
2005
Group Photo Exhibition, Third Line Gallery, Dubai
Group Photo Exhibition, Baudoin Lebon Gallery, Paris
Group Exhibition, "Oracle of Thruth" aeroplastics contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
Group Exhibition, After the revolution, San Sebastian, Spain
Foto Art Festival, Poland
Rebel mind Gallery, Berlin
Western looked by eastern, CCCB, Barcelona
2004
Chobi Mella 3, Bangladesh
Photo Biennale of Luxemburg
Photo Biennale of Moscow, Russia
The House of World Cultures, Berlin
San Jose Museum of Art, New York
Ville De Boulogne Billancourt, France
Konstmuseum Gutenberg, Sweden
Participated in Tour Exhibition " Women in Orient - Women in Occident" , Germany.
2003
Sharjah International Biennial 6, Sharjah
Participating in Tour Exhibition " Harem Fantasies and the new Scheherzades", Spain and France.
Participated in the Tour Exhibition "Veil", England
2002
Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (Glimpses of Iran), Greece
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran
Villa Moda, Kuwait
Silk Road Gallery, Tehran
2001
"Regards Persans ", Espace Electra, Paris
Participated in the Tour Exhibition (Photospania Festival), Spain
Barbican Art Center (Iranian Contemporary Art), London
Participated in the Tour Exhibition of Fnac, France
A Space Gallery, Toronto
2000
The House of World Cultures, Berlin
Ballymena Arts Festival, Northern Ireland
Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center Copenhagen, Denmark
Leighton House Museum, London
Golestan Gallery, Tehran
COLLECTIONS
British Museum
Centre Pompidou
MUMOK - Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien
Musée des Arts Contemporains Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Collection Marin Karmitz
Collection Lambert
Collection Rose Issa
Collection Driss Ben Brahim
Collection Sheikh Majid Al Sabah
Collection Isabelle Munoz
Collection Saeb Eigner
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