ARTISTS \ Mitra Tabrizian
Mitra Tabrizian’s monumental photographs explore contemporary social and political issues in her native Iran as well as her current home, Britain, offering distilled critiques of capitalism and immigration, among other themes, as well as evoking larger narratives. An eerie stillness and sense of alienation pervade many of her photographs: in City, London 2008 (2008), suited employees stand, in panoramic view, in the lobby of a bank; they stare blankly in different directions, suggesting the detachment that connects these workers with the larger currents underlying corporate culture. Although she depicts ordinary individuals in everyday settings, Tabrizian stages her scenes, creating cinematic tableaux that tread a line between fiction and reality. She also produces films, and has drawn influence from New Wave Iranian cinema.
For the artist's complete and available work list, to enquire.
Press
Selected articles available to download
Guardian G2, interview with Sarah Phillips , October 2012
Articles & Photo-Essays
2008
Tehran 2006 in ‘C International Photo Art Magazine’, Issue no 7
Border (on Iranians in exile), in Iranian Photography Now, Rose Issa (ed), Hatje Cantz Verlag
Naked City, in Horizons, Elena Foster and Antonio Sanz (eds) Ivory Press (Nov.)
2007
Border (on Iranians in exile) newformations, N 62,
Interviewed by Hamid Naficy in An Accented Cinema: Exile and Diasporic Film making, Hamid Naficy, Princeton U Press
2000-02
‘Beyond the Limits’ in the following books & journals: Different: a historical context Stuart Hall & Mark Sealy (eds), Phaidon Press
‘Futures: the journal of policy, planning & futures studies’ Ziauddin Sardar (ed)
‘Art’, German magazine, N11, 2001
1998-99
Minimal Utopia (photo essay) in the following books & journals:
Formation of Present (translation), Hubertus Von Amelunxen & Antje, Krause-Wahl (eds), Muthesius Hochschule
The Third Text, Rasheed Araeen (ed), Routlege, london
Photographers International’, Juan I-Jong (ed), Taiwan
Camera Austria, N 62 / 63
1998
‘The Blues’ in ‘Det Finns Granser’ (‘There Exist Borders’: translation from Swedish),Wiwi Samuelsson
1995- 98
Surveillance (photo essay) in the following journals & books:
The Politics Behind the Nude (translation), a book by Michiko Kasahara
Liberating Art History (translation), Hiroko Hagiwar (Ed), Jijitsushn – sha,Tokyo –
The paper was initially published in New Formations, N 6 – 1990 & reprinted in Camera Austria, N 49
1992
‘The Black As Such: Race & Representation’, Camera Austria, N 40 – reprinted in ‘Public Domain’ (translation),
Jorge Ribalta (Ed) Departament de Cultura, Barcelona, 1994
1988
‘The Blues ‘, New Formations, N 6
1985
‘Correct Distance: On the Femme Fatale’, Block, N 10
‘Governmentality: On the Discourse of Advertising’, Screen
‘College of Fashion’ (photo-essay), Screen Education, N 4
Biography
Born in Tehran Iran
Lives and works in London
Selected Exhibitions
2013
Safar/Voyage, MOA, UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver. April- Sept 2013
2012
Solo show, Another Country, The Wapping Project Bankside, London
Light from the Middle East, Victoria and Albert Museum (group exhibition)
2011
Solo show, Project B, Contemporary Art , Milan
Solo show, Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery, N.Y.
2010
21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery/ Gallery of Modern Art, Australia
Play list, Jönköpings läns museum, Sweden
International Festival of photography, Fotojatka, Prague, Czech Republic traveling to Budweis, Brno and other cities
‘In and out’, Project B, Contemporary Art, Milan
‘Iranian Pulse’, Museu Nacional, (National Museum), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2009
Solo show, Albion gallery, London
Theatre of the Real, Fotomuseum, Antwerp, Belgium
Translation/Tarjama, Queens Museum of Art, N.Y.
The End: Analyzing Art in Troubled Times, Andy Warhol Museum N.Y.
Iran, inside Out, Chelsea Art Museum, N.Y. traveling to DePaul University Museum, Chicago.
2008
Solo show, Tate Britain, London
‘Street and Studio: An Urban History of Photography’, Tate Modern, London traveling to Museum of Folkwang
2007
C International Photo, Phillips de Pury, N.Y.
Noorderlicht Gallery, Holland and Wall House Foundation
FotoArtFestival, Poland
2006
Solo show, Moderna Mussset (Museum of Modern art) Stockholm, Sweden
10th Venice Biennale of architecture, Italian Pavilion Giardini di Castello, Italy
‘Voodoo Macbeth: a tribute to the work of Orson Welles’, De la Warr Pavilion
Contemporary Iranian photography, The House of Artists, Tehran, Iran
2005
‘Safe: an exhibition of contemporary art’, Karlskrona Art Gallery & Blekinge Museum, Sweden (catalogue – poster)
‘In the Shadow of Fallen Heroes’, Central Asian Biennale in Kyrgyzstan (catalogue)
2004
Solo Show, BBK, Bilbao, Spain – (catalogue)
Solo show , Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (catalogue)
Far Near Distance – `New Positions of Contemporary Iranian Artists’, the House of
World Cultures Berlin, Germany (catalogue)
‘Veil’, The Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden (catalogue )
‘Lumo 04 triennaial of Contemporary Photography’, Jyvaskyla Art Museum, Finland (catalogue –poster- T shirt)
2003
Solo show, Museum of Folkwang, Germany (catalogue)
‘Aletheia: The Real of concealment ‘, Art Museum, Goteborg, Sweden (catalogue – poster)
‘Veil’, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK (touring)
2001
‘Inhabiting’, Gallery Lelong , NY. USA
1999
London: Post-Colonial City’, Architectural Association, London, UK
1998
Minimal Utopia (Solo show), Camera Austria Gallery, Graz, Austria (poster)
‘Gender- Beyond Memory’, Metropolitan Museum of Photography’, Tokyo, Japan (catalogue)
‘Family, Nation, Tribe, Community Shift’, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany (catalogue)
1995
‘The Outburst of Signs: Art at the Interfaces of Gender & Race’, Kunstlerwerkstatt Lothringerstrabe, Munich, Germany (catalogue)
1994
‘Le Shuttle’, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (catalogue)
‘Public Domain’, Art Centre Santa Monica, Barcelona, Spain (catalogue)
Solo show, Hippolyte Gallery, Helsinki, Finland (touring in Finland)
Solo show, ‘Gallery Index: Centre of Photography’, Stockholm, Sweden (touring in Sweden)
Selected Publications
Monographs
Another Country (preface by Homi Bhabha), Hatje Cantz, 2012
This is That Place, (with an introduction by TJ Demos) Tate Catalogue, 2008
Beyond the limits the Limits (with an introduction by Stuart Hall), Steidl, 2004
Correct Distance (with an introduction by Griselda Pollock) Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK, 1990
Books
A Guide to Collecting Contemporary Photography, Jocelyn Phillips, Sotheby’s, 2010
Art of the Middle East: Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab world and Iran ‘, Saeb Eigner, Merrell Publishers 2010
Different, Sames: new perspective in contemporary Iranian art, ed Hossein Amirsadeghi, Trans Globe Publishing Ltd 2009
Iranian Photography Now, ed Rose Issa, Hatje Cantz, 2008 book cover for Saubere Verhältnisse a novel by the Swedish author Marie Hermanson published by Suhrkamp Verlag (2005)
Art & Feminism, Helena Reckitt (ed), Phaidon Press (Oct.) This book is part of a series entitled ’20th Century Source Books'(2000)
Terra Infirma – Geography’s Visual Culture, Irit Rogoff, Routledge (2000)
The Image & Visual Culture, Jessica Evans (ed), Open University (1999)
The Art of Interruption: Realism, Photography & the Everyday, John Roberts , MUP 1998
Visual and Other Pleasures, Laura Mulvey, Macmillan,1987
‘Post-Modernism & the Question of Identity’, ICA Documents, N 6,
Vision and Difference, Griselda Pollock, Routledge 1988
Female Desire, Rosalind Coward
Photography Politics: Two, – Patricia Holland, Jo Spence and Simon Watney (ed), Comedia Publishing Group,
Collections
National Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Australia
Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Musée d’Art Moderne (Museum of Modern Art), Luxembourg
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Moderna Mussset (Museum of Modern art) Stockholm, Sweden
Museum of Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Zoroastrian Cultural Centre, Paris, France
Sparkasse Essen, Germany
Stichting Fotografie Noorderlicht, Netherlands
The Arts Council of Great Britain
National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford, UK
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA
Alvar Aalto Museum, Finland
And various major private collections
Awards
2005
Arts & Humanities Research Center (AHRC) Research Leave Grant
The Arts Council, UK
2004
Arts & Humanities Research Center (AHRC) Grants in the Creative & Performing Arts
The Arts Council, UK
2003
Arts & Humanities Research Board (AHRB) Innovation Awards
1996
London Arts Board
1993
British Film Institute
1989
Greater London Arts (GLA), film award
British Film Institute
Photographers’ Gallery Trust Fund
1987
Metro Billboard Project, Newcastle, UK
Greater London Arts, photography award
1985
National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, photography award UK
Greater London Arts, photography award
Arts Council photography award, UK