Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat was married to Kyong Park, the curator of the Storefront for Art and Architecture. They married shortly after she received her MFA from Berkeley and moved to New York. The couple, however, later separated.

Neshat currently lives with her partner Shoja Azari, who is an Iranian-born visual artist and filmmaker.

Though normally allowing her art to make political statements, Neshat has occasionally engaged in activism. In 2009, she participated in a three-day hunger strike at the United Nations, protesting the results of Iran’s presidential contest.

Shirin Neshat was born on March 26, 1957 in the city of Qazvin, Iran. Qazvin is approximately two hours north of the capital city of Tehran, and near the Elburz mountain range.

Her father was a physician, and both her parents were recognized as upper-middle class and intellectual. She attended Catholic boarding school in Tehran until 1974.

In 1974, her father—an admirer of western cultures—sent her to complete her formal education in California. She later enrolled at the University of California-Berkeley, where she earned a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees.

In 1990, Neshat was able to return to Iran for a visit. Upon arrival, she experienced the sharp changes in Iranian society, particularly those laws governing women. This was a watershed event in her creative life.

Shirin Neshat moved to New York City and began working at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in 1983. Storefront is a non-profit, alternative space for creative enterprises.

In 1993, she began exhibiting her first photographic works to critical acclaim. Although trained as a painter, Neshat contends that photography—black and white—conveys clarity and simplicity unlike any other medium.

In 2000, she exhibited her works in Dallas, Texas and Turin, Italy. Two years later, she launched photographic exhibitions in Houston and Minneapolis. From 2000 on, she began shooting videos which were viewed at a number of international film festivals, e.g. Lacarno, Tribeca, Cannes and Sundance. Throughout this period, she continued to show her still photography.

Year 2005 saw Neshat take her work to ever farther and more prestigious destinations. She held exhibitions—which included video, music and multi-media elements— in London, Berlin and the Spanish city of León.

From 2006 to 2008, she opened exhibitions in Amsterdam, Salzburg, Lisbon and Reykjavik. Her work was noted for its overlay of Arabic and Persian text on its human subjects.

Neshat’s first major work was a 1993 through 1997 series entitled ‘Women of Allah.’ Each photograph portrays a Muslim woman overlaid with Persian calligraphy, and was inspired by indigenous feminist poetry from Iran.

She produced ‘Rapture’ in 1999. This video examines the gender politics of conservative Islamic societies, comparing and contrasting the lives of women and men.

‘Logic of the Birds’ is a combination of film and live performance. In this presentation, Neshat collaborated with screenwriter Shoja Azari and cinematographer Ghasem Ibrahimian, both Iranian exiles.

In 2009, she produced a film ‘Women Without Men,’ based on a novel by Shahrnush Parsipur. This work focuses on four Iranian women, from their lives under the Shah to the present day.