Shirazeh Houshiary: ‘Studio’ at Frieze Masters 2024
Painting in wooded seclusion, the artist has a deep connection with nature, oscillating between looking out and looking in
Painting in wooded seclusion, the artist has a deep connection with nature, oscillating between looking out and looking in
We need to transcend dualistic thinking to see the cosmic process as the perpetual dance of creation and destruction at the same time. This dance is at the heart of my work – Shirazeh Houshiary
Pure material and conceptual duality define Shirazeh Houshiary’s interrogative practice. A diligent student of multiple knowledge structures and belief systems, she is interested in the overlap between the seemingly opposing realms of science, myth and religion.
Moving from Iran to London in 1974 to study at Chelsea School of Art, Houshiary crafted some of her earliest sculptures from fired earth. Such work drew on antique precedents, such as Cycladic art, and had an almost ritualistic presence and ephemerality. Since the 2000s, her paintings and sculptures – now in materials such as aluminium and glass – have become more explicit in addressing how we perceive the world around us, indicated by their thought-provoking titles.
Houshiary’s recent paintings are created by letting raw pigments sediment naturally on a wet surface. Once dry, an intricately drawn lattice (the interwoven symbolic expression of ‘I am’ and ‘I am not’) is superimposed, creating a web-like structure that appears to alternately disperse and contract in density, evoking the central role of fabric in paintings by Antonello da Messina and Francisco de Zurbarán. Houshiary’s process of working embraces the duality of the universe in its constant oscillation between chaos and order, while materially embodying this tension in balance.
Shirazeh Houshiary is showing with Lisson at Frieze Masters 2024.
About Studio at Frieze Masters 2024
Following its debut in 2023, Studio, curated by Sheena Wagstaff, highlights Frieze Masters’ commitment to living practice in dialogue with historical art. By focusing on artists’ place of making, it reflects the idea of the past informing the present moment of creation in an object for the future.
Studio features ten solo presentations by Beatrice Caracciolo (Paula Cooper Gallery), Isabella Ducrot (Sadie Coles HQ, Galerie Gisela Capitain and Standard [Oslo]), Nathalie Du Pasquier (Pace Gallery), Shirazeh Houshiary (Lisson Gallery), Kim Yun Shin (Lehmann Maupin), Mernet Larsen (James Cohan), Thaddeus Mosley (Karma), Doris Salcedo (White Cube), Nilima Sheikh (Chemould Prescott Road) and Adriana Varejão (Victoria Miro).
Further Information
Frieze London and Frieze Masters, 9 – 13 October 2024, The Regent’s Park.
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Main Image: Shirazeh Houshiary, The Hours, 2023. Pigment and pencil on Aquacryl on canvas and aluminium, 190 × 190 × 5 cm. © Shirazeh Houshiary. Courtesy: Lisson Gallery. Photo: George Darrell
