LONDON.- The South London Gallery is presenting a new exhibition by Nairy Baghramian. This is the artist's first major solo show in a London institution in fourteen years, at a time when she is receiving widespread international recognition for her work. Recent accolades include the 2023 Metropolitan Museum of Art's facade commission, the Aspen Award for Art, the Nasher Prize, and the Nivola Award for Sculpture.
Nairy Baghramian's conceptually rigorous work invites viewers to reconsider their sense of self, space, object and site. Particularly in her prime medium of sculpture, the artist employs an extensive repertoire of techniques, materials and forms to address the spatial, architectural, social, political and contextual conditions of contemporary art. Baghramian often combines geometric shapes, organic matter, industrial processes, and gestural procedures to manipulate familiar forms. The resulting abstract yet eminently allusive works subtly explore the connections between art and other fields of object production (most notably interior design, dance and theatre) to evoke bodies of all types in their vulnerability and obstinacy.
For her SLG exhibition, Baghramian fills the Main Gallery with sculptures from the Misfits, which she started at the Galleria Arte Moderna, Milan, in 2021, inspired by children's assembly-building toys in which the parts are designed to fit together. Baghramian subverts this logic by focusing instead on the creative value and potential of dis-function, of failure to fit in and of the outsider. In a further reversal of normal codes of behaviour, visitors will be able to interact with the sculptures.
In the SLG's Fire Station galleries, Baghramian continues her long-standing practice of collaborating with fellow artists by inviting some of them to co-create works with her. In a play on ideas of the hand-me-down and make-do-and-mend, she takes the idea of the misfit several steps further. Unique hybrid works have been created through the exchange and fusion of sculptural elements made by Baghramian with those of participating artists.
Born in Isfahan, Baghramian had to flee post-revolutionary Iran as a teenager and has been living and working in Berlin since 1984.
Recent solo shows include those at the Nivola Museum, Sardinia IT (2024), the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen CO (2023); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas TX (2022); Carré d’Art, Nimes, France (2022); Secession, Vienna, Austria (2021); Galleria d'Arte Moderna (GAM), Milan, Italy (2021); MUDAM Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2019); Palacio de Cristal, Madrid, Spain (2018); the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN (2017); Statens Museum for Kunst, National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark (2017); Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium (2016); Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland (2016); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2015); The Art Institute of Chicago IL (2014); Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal (2014); MIT Visual Arts Center, Cambridge MA (2013); Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany (2012); the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (2012); and Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2010); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2006).
Baghramian has also participated at Venice Biennale, Italy (2019 and 2011); Yorkshire Sculpture International, Wakefield, UK (2019); Documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany and Athens, Greece (2017); Skulptur Projekte Muenster, Germany (2017 and 2007); Lyon Biennale, France (2017); Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, UK (2012); and the Berlin Biennale, Germany (2014 and 2008).
Her works are held in institutional collections, including Museum of Modern Art, New York NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA; Salomon Guggenheim Collection, New York NY; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN; Tate Modern, London, UK; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; MUDAM Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Tamayo Museum, Mexico City, Mexico; Jumex Museum, Mexico City, Mexico; Nasher Art Center, Dallas TX; Art Institute Chicago, Chicago IL; MOCA, Los Angeles CA.
