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CHAMBRE ART: Nairy Baghramian

Nairy Baghramian (Isfahan, Iran 1971) is a contemporary Iranian artist based in Berlin.


For two decades Nairy Baghramian has been conducting rigorous formal and conceptual research that explores the relationship between architecture, objects and the human body.

Her reflection on the political potential of the sculptural form also supports the importance of the physicality of the work, which is capable of embodying ideas and theoretical assumptions through its formal, material and display specificities.

For Baghramian, every work of art, even in its substantial autonomy, is always linked to the time, place and political-social fabric in which it is inserted. The artist regards sculpture as a hybrid creature and blends mechanical and anthropomorphic forms to create works that are perplexing. It is difficult to categorise the objects made by the artist, which are neither entirely mechanical nor entirely corporeal, they appear as fragile substances suspended between the two entities.


Recent solo shows have been exhibited at MUDAM Luxembourg (2019); Palacio de Cristal, Madrid, Spain (2018); the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2017); Statens Museum for Kunst, National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (2017); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium (2016); Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland (2016); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2015); Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal (2014); MIT Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2013); Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany (2012); The Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (2012) and the Serpentine Gallery, London (2010).


Baghramian has been the recipient of the Zurich Art Prize (2016); the Arnold-Bode Prize, Kassel (2014); the Hector Prize, Kunsthalle Mannheim (2012); and the Ernst Schering Foundation Award (2007). She has participated in the Venice Biennale (2019 and 2011); the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Scotland (2012); the 8th and 5th Berlin Biennale, Germany (2014 and 2008); and the Skulptur Projekt Munster, Germany (2017 and 2007).

She has participated in biennials and major international exhibitions including: Performa 19, New York (2019); Venice Biennale (2011; 2019); 14th Lyon Biennale (2017); documenta 14, Kassel (2017); Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017); Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture (2015); Berlin Biennale (2008; 2014); Glasgow International (2012).

Baghramian is among the finalists for the Hugo Boss Prize 2020.


She lives and works in Berlin.



Exhibition view: Nairy Baghramian, Breathing Spell, Reina Sofia, Palacio de Crystal, Madrid (17 May 2018–14 October 2018). Image copyright the artist and @mariangoodmangallery Photo: Timo Ohler.

Exhibition view: Nairy Baghramian, Breathing Spell, Reina Sofia, Palacio de Crystal, Madrid (17 May 2018–14 October 2018). Image copyright the artist and @mariangoodmangallery Photo: Timo Ohler.


Installation view of the exhibition Nairy Baghramian: Déformation Professionnelle, 2017. (Photo: Gene Pittman, ©Walker Art Center).


Exhibition view: Nairy Baghramian, Breathing Spell, Reina Sofia, Palacio de Crystal, Madrid (17 May 2018–14 October 2018). Image copyright the artist and @mariangoodmangallery Photo: Timo Ohler.

Installation view of the exhibition Nairy Baghramian: Déformation Professionnelle, 2017. (Photo: Gene Pittman, ©Walker Art Center).


Installation view, Nairy Baghramian, Beliebte Stellen/Privileged Points ongoing series, Mudam, Luxembourg – Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, 2019 - ongoing.


Exhibition view: Nairy Baghramian, Breathing Spell, Reina Sofia, Palacio de Crystal, Madrid (17 May 2018–14 October 2018). Image copyright the artist and @mariangoodmangallery Photo: Timo Ohler.

Installation view, Nairy Baghramian, Beliebte Stellen/Privileged Points ongoing series, Mudam, Luxembourg – Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, 2019 - ongoing.

Photo by Rémi Villaggi-Metz Copyright: © Studio Rémi Villaggi-Metz.


Installation view of the exhibition Nairy Baghramian: Déformation Professionnelle, 2017. (Photo: Gene Pittman, ©Walker Art Center).


Installation view of the exhibition Nairy Baghramian: Déformation Professionnelle, 2017. (Photo: Gene Pittman, ©Walker Art Center).





We do not own the rights to any of the pictures in the article. All the rights go to the authors of the pictures.

Nairy Baghramian

©Walker Art Center

©Kurimanzutto

@mariangoodmangallery



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