Three Women Expatriates Among Trailblazing Artists

Three Iranian expatriates are among the 31 women artists who will be honored on November 6 by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at its annual gala.

The artists span three generations and many different movements. The event will take place in New York at Lincoln Center, artnews.com reported.

“Each year, the Hirshhorn celebrates incredible artists from around the world who throughout their careers continue to challenge and inspire us,” Melissa Chiu, Hirshhorn’s director, said in a statement.

“This year, I am especially proud to honor 31 outstanding female artists - from pioneers of performance and video art to emerging painters and sculptors - whose collective contributions to the field have transformed the way we look at art and set the stage for generations of creative talents yet to come.”

The annual event will celebrate 31 women artists from around the world who transformed public perceptions of contemporary art and expanded cultural dialogue around the most important current issues.

The group represents some of the most significant artists working today, featuring trailblazers who pioneered new forms of art.

Shirazeh Houshiary, 62, Nairy Baghramian, 46, and Tala Madani, 36, are the three Iranian artists in the list.

Houshiary is an installation artist and sculptor who lives and works in London. She left Iran in 1973 and attended Chelsea School of Art, London, 1976–1979.

Houshiary was identified with other young artists of her generation such as a British abstract sculptor Richard Deacon and British sculptor (of Indian origin) Anish Kapoor, but her work was distinct from theirs in the strong Persian influence which it displayed. Her ideology draws on mystical doctrine and 13th-century Persian poet Rumi.

  Turner Prize Nominee

She was a nominee for the 1994 Turner Prize, an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Houshiary’s work is included in numerous public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and The Tate Collection, London.

In 2005 and 2008, she 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.

Born in Isfahan, Nairy Baghramian is a visual artist living and working in Berlin.

In her sculptures, made from a wide range of materials including steel, silicon, resin and leather, she takes a different approach to the language of sculpture, architecture and installation.

She has displayed her works at solo exhibits in Belgium, England, Mexico, Portugal, the US, Canada and Germany.

Born in Tehran, Tala Madani is an artist known for her paintings, drawings and stop-motion animations. She is currently based in Los Angeles.

In 1994 she moved to Oregon and in 2004 graduated from Oregon State University in political science and visual arts. In 2006, she graduated from Yale University School of Art with a master’s degree in painting.

She has won awards including Catherine Doctorow Prize for Contemporary Painting (2013) and the De Volkskrant Art Award (2012) among others

  Supporting Women Artists

The Hirshhorn has continually supported the development of women artists through an active acquisition program and dynamic exhibitions.

All proceeds from the gala will benefit the Hirshhorn’s public initiatives, including exhibitions, free programs, community partnerships and digital collaboration that bring global contemporary art to the widest possible audiences.

The Hirshhorn is dedicated to modern and contemporary art and is a leading voice for 21st-century art and culture.

It is affiliated to the Smithsonian Institution which includes a group of museums and research centers administered by the US government.

With nearly 12,000 paintings, sculptures, photographs, mixed-media installations, works on paper and new media works, the museum holdings encompass one of the most important collections of postwar American and European art in the world.

The Hirshhorn presents diverse exhibitions and offers an array of public programs on the art of modern time - free to all, throughout the year.

For the past two years, the museum’s dual New York and Washington D.C. galas have resulted in record-setting fundraising, bringing in more than $3.5 million to benefit the institution’s world-class programming and acquisitions. Its next annual Washington event is scheduled for summer 2018.