Shirin Neshat: An Iranian Artist in Exile

Women Artists: A Lecture Series in the gallery featuring professors from Capilano University

Shirin Neshat is one of the most celebrated Iranian artists in the diaspora, famous for her iconic black-and-white photographs of veiled women shielded by Persian calligraphy. She later expanded her portrayals of women in relation to their sociocultural environments. 

In her art, Neshat contemplates the lives of Iranian women and the social and ideological restraints on their identities and bodies. Through a variety of visual media, including video art, multimedia installations, and movies, she provides viewers with a range of critical approaches to femininity, identity, and displacement. This talk will introduce Neshat’s practice within the context of Persian art, and explores her influence on contemporary Iranian artists in Iran and the diaspora. 

Behrang Nabavi Nejad received her doctoral degree in Art History and Visual Studies from the University of Victoria (2017) where she has taught courses on Islamic art and architecture. She holds master’s degrees of art from the department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, The University of Toronto (2009), and History of Art from Bangalore University, India (2000). 

She has taught courses at the Capilano University and Columbia College, in Vancouver on a variety of art history topics, including world art history, Canadian contemporary art, graphic novels, and women in art. She has recently offered a course on Persian Art and Architecture: From Ancient to Contemporary at Capilano University.

Image:
Shirin Neshat, Speechless, 1996
Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery