Shirin Neshat

Born Qazvin, Iran, 1957

In 1974, at the age of seventeen, Neshat moved from Iran to the United States to study art at the University of California, Berkeley. As a result of the 1979 revolution in Iran, she did not return to her homeland until 1990. It was then, profoundly affected by her visit and the changes she noticed and experienced, that Neshat resumed work as a practising artist. She began with photographs, many heightened with words in ink, and in the late 1990s started experimenting with video. In 1999 her video installation Turbulent won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale. She has since received a number of prizes, including the Grand Prix of the Kwangju Biennial in Korea, 2000, and the Visual Art Award of the Edinburgh Festival, 2000. Neshat’s work has been shown worldwide in numerous solo and group exhibitions. She lives and works in New York.