Courtesy of The Third Line Gallery, Dubai.

Biography

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian explores the repetition of patterns and forms in Islamic art and architecture to form colourful motifs. The result is a geometric and reflective kaleidoscope with shards of light slicing through fragments of mirror.

Farmanfarmaian was born in Qazvin, Iran in 1922, and moved to New York in 1945 to study art and fashion. In 1957, she returned to Iran, however, after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 Farmanfarmaian found herself exiled to New York. She was able to return to Iran in 2004, where she regained her place in the Iranian art scene.

Farmanfarmaian has been featured in several solo exhibitions, including Sunset, Sunrise, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2018); Mirror Variations: The Art of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Grand Rapids Art Museum, US (2018); Monir Farmanfarmaian: Infinite Possibility, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, US (2017); Lineages, Savannah College of Art and Design Museum, US (2017); Infinite Possibilities, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2015); Infinite Possibilities, Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2014) and Jef Geys/Monir Farmanfarmaian, WIELS, Brussels (2013).

Among her group exhibitions are Liquid City, Bruges Triennial, Bruges, Belgium (2018); Long Winding Journeys: Contemporary Art and the Islamic Tradition, Katonah Museum of Art, New York (2018); SUR/FACE Mirrors, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt (2017); Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2017); Gwangju Biennale 11, South Korea (2016); Ideas for Change, Vienna Biennale (2015); Seeing Through Light: Selections from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi (2014); Jameel Prize 2011, San Antonio Museum of Art, US (2013) and Sharjah Biennial 11(2013).

Farmanfarmaian’s work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and Sharjah Art Foundation. In 2018, The Monir Museum opened in Tehran as the first solo museum in Iran.

Farmanfarmaian attended Tehran University (1944), graduated from Parsons School of Design (1949) and became a member of the New York Art League (1950–1953). She was born in Qazvin, Iran in 1924 and passed away in Tehran in 2019.

SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennial 11

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