Shirazeh Houshiary

Shirazeh Houshiary (born 15 January 1955) is an Iranian-born English sculptor, installation artist, and painter.

She lives and works in London.

Shirazeh Houshiary was born on 15 January 1955 in Shiraz, Iran.

She left her native country of Iran in 1973.

Houshiary attended Chelsea School of Art in London, from 1976 to 1979.

She was a Cardiff College of Art junior fellow, from 1979 to 1980.

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.

She was a nominee for the 1994 Turner Prize.

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.

In 2005 (Veil), 2008 (Shroud), 2011 (Dust), and 2019 (A Cup and a Rose) 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.

Houshiary's work is included in numerous public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Tate.

Select solo exhibitions:

Select group exhibitions:

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 2008, the St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London unveiled a commission by Shirazeh Houshiary and Pip Horne for the East Window.

Her ideology draws on Sufi mystical doctrine and Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian mystic and poet from the 13th century.