Shirazeh Houshiary

File:New East window of St Martin's in the Fields - geograph.org.uk - 1072810.jpg

The new East window of St Martin's in the Fields church by Shirazeh Houshiary

Shirazeh Houshiary (born Shiraz 15 January 1955) is an Iranian installation artist and sculptor. She is a former Turner Prize nominee, and lives and works in London.

Life and work

Shirazeh Houshiary left her native country of Iran in 1973. She attended Chelsea School of Art, London (1976–9) and was a Cardiff College of Art junior fellow at (1979–80).

Houshiary was identified with other young sculptors of her generation such as Richard Deacon and Anish Kapoor, but her work was distinct from theirs in the strong Persian influence which it displayed, though sharing with Kapoor a spiritual concern. Her ideology draws on Sufi mystical doctrine and Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian mystic and poet from the 13th century.

She was a nominee for the 1994 Turner Prize. In 2008, the St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London unveiled a commission by Shirazeh Houshiary and Pip Horne for the East Window. Houshiary's work is included in numerous public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York and The Tate Collection, London. In 2005, Creative Time commissioned Houshiary and Pip Horne for their Creative Time Art on the Plaza series where the monumental Breath tower was exhibited in New York City. Her work was also included in Feri Daftari's exhibition Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking at the Museum of Modern Art in 2006 and the 17th Biennale of Sydney in 2010.

In 2005 (Veil) and 2008 (Shroud), Houshiary worked with animator Mark Hatchard of Hotbox Studios to create animations for gallery installations at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York and the Lisson Gallery in London.

External links

• Shirazeh Houshiary
• Museum of Modern Art
• Tate Collection
• Government Art Collection
• Lisson Gallery
• Lehmann Maupin Gallery
• St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Hotbox Studios
• Mark Hatchard