Bio
Born in Tehran, Iran 1969; Lives and works in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Naz Shahrokh is a visual artist who lives and works in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Her current work involves photography, drawing, video, and installation, and throughout her studio practice, Naz strives to find a connection that is significant in conjunction to society, the individual, and like a narrator or a poet, she assembles visual narratives that are gentle to the eye as well as revealing. Naz is currently working on several projects connected to land art, where she is investigating the landscape of the UAE, as well as a body of work linked to Cartography.
Education
1997 M.F.A/M.S, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1993 B.F.A. Painting, Minor Art History, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Selected Solo / Two-Person Exhibitions
2020 XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2019 SIKKA Art Fair, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE – Wish Tree
2016 Tashkeel, Dubai, UAE – Shifting
2010 Ghaf Gallery, Abu Dhabi, UAE – Haft-Sin Zazen
2004 Le Petit Versailles, New York, NY – ReCycles of Life – Jennifer Paul & Naz Shahrokh
2006 Falaki Gallery, American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt – Investigating Nature
Awards And Residencies
2016 T.I.N.A Prize, Selected for the Los Angeles Edition (Lisboa, Los Angeles and Sao Paulo Edition), Autumn 2016
2015 Prix Monte Dei Fiori, Galerie Metanoia, Paris, France
2015 T.I.N.A. Prize, Finalist (Amsterdam, Madrid and Milan Edition), Winter 2015
2011 1st Prize, Viridian Gallery, NYC. Juror: Elisabeth Sussman, Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art
2006 Vermont Studio Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont
2005 Abruzzi Mountain Studio Residency, Anversa, Italy
2004 Artist-In-The-Marketplace Fellowship, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
2003 Silvermine Board of Trustees Award (consecutive), The 54th Art of the Northeast, Silvermine Guild Art Center, New Canaan, CT. Juror: Harry Philbrick, Director, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art
2003 Change Inc. (the Rauschenberg Foundation) Grant, Captiva, FL
Screenings
Gesture, AXWFF, Anthology Film Archives, NYC, New York, curator/director Lili White (March, 2019)
FLEFF 20th Annual Film Festival, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York, curators/directors Dale Hudson and Claudia Costa Pederson (April 9-15, 2018)
Experiments in Cinema V12.3, University of New Mexico, Department of Cinematic Arts, Albuquerque, New Mexico, curator/director Bryan Konefsky (April, 2017)
Sustainability Shorts, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina Greensboro, North Carolina, creative director Sarah Dorsey (April 2016)
Arab Avant-Garde; Reflections on Situated Time, Microscope Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, curators/directors Peter Eliot Buntaine and Samirah Alkassim (August 2015)
PRISM PIPE, Pehrspace, Los Angeles, California, creative director Sarah Zucker (July 2015)
Arab Experimental Films: Reflections on Situated Time, Red Room, Baltimore, Maryland, curator Samirah Alkassim
(May 2015)
AXWFF, Anthology Film Archives, NYC, New York, curator/director Lili White (May, 2015)
Experiments in Cinema v10.T36, University of New Mexico, Department of Cinematic Arts, Albuquerque, New Mexico, curator/director Bryan Konefsky (April, 2015)
AXWFF, http://axwonline.com, NYC, NY –Twilight Mindset, curator/director Lili White (November, 2014)
ISEA 2014, A4 Space, Dubai, UAE, curator Atteqa Ali (November 2014)
Downtown Film Festival, Los Angeles, California, curator Rex Bruce (July, 2014)
Dubai Art Fair, Dubai, UAE – Global Art Forum (March, 2014)
Sikka Art Fair, Dubai, UAE – Local and Locality (March, 2014)
Mail Art
2015 Contemporary Art Fair of Athens, Faliron Pavilion, Athens, Greece – A5 (curator Artemis Potamianou)
Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY – 6 x 6
2014 Dreamdva, Drumshando, Ireland – Your Culture (curator Patrick Anderson)
AIR Gallery, Brooklyn, NY – Wish You Were Here 13
2008 Metro Pictures, New York, NY – Postcards from the Edge
2007 James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY – Postcards from the Edge
2004 Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO – A Sense of Place
2002 Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA – Reactions
Kerchoff Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA – Not In Our Name
Exit Art, New York, NY – Reactions
Collaboration
2014 Core Contributor, Holoscenes, A project by Lars Jan, http://www.holoscen.es/collaborators/
On-Line Publications
WiderScreen 1-2/2017: Tekstitaide –Text Art (Finish Academic Journal), published by Filmiverkory, Turku, Finland, August 2017: http://widerscreen.fi/
ITCH – Creative Expression Journal, School of Literature, Language and Media, Department of Creative Writing
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Issue #13, DETECTION, Tuesday, 09 September 2014: http://www.itch.co.za/visual/were-all-connected
Issue #8, tense / temporal / temporary / transient, Monday, 21 March 2011: http://www.itch.co.za/visual/stratosphere
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Smithsonian Museum, Washington D.C., USA – United Arab Emirates: Living
Landscape/Living Memory (curators Michele Bambling and Rebecca Fenton)
2021 Shelter Art Space, Alexandria, Egypt – Miscegenation (curator Khaled Hafez) Cairo Photo Week (2nd Edition) & Photopia, Cairo, Egypt – Miscegenation (curators Khaled Hafez, Nelly Sharkawy)
2020 XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE – Wolf Tone (curator Anna Seaman)
2019 SIKKA Art Fair, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2017 SIKKA Art Fair, Dubai, UAE (curator Atteqa Ali)
2016 Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris, France (Etablissement Culturel de la Ville de Paris), Paris, France – Sacrees Graines (curators David Reigner and Elsa Blanc)
2016 CICA Museum, Gimpo-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
The Painting Center, NYC, NY – The Retrieval of the Beautiful (curators Alyce Gottesman, Bill Hochhausen,
Jack McWhorter)
Gallery 12, Budapest, Hungary – Environmental Project (curator Bea Szechy)
Petofi Literary Museum, Budapest, Hungary – Environmental Project (curator Bea Szechy)
2015 Galerie Metanoia, Paris, France – Un Seul Grain de Riz (curator Marc Higonnet)
MAMU Gallery, Budapest, Hungary –Library Thoughts-5 (curator Bea Szechy)
Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY – Momenta Art Spring Benefit 2015 (by invitation)
Tashkeel, Dubai, UAE – Sustaining Identity (curator Tasmin Wildy)
SIKKA Art Fair, Dubai, UAE (curator Jalal Luqman)
2014 Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, California (curators Joanna Szupinska-Myers, Curator of Exhibitions, California Museum of Photography and Ryan Linkoff Parsons Curatorial Fellow, L.A. County Museum of Art)
Al Fanoon Gallery, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE – Cartographies; Mapping Intersections and
Counterpoints (curators Catherine Bebout and Karen Oremus)
2012 FN Gallery, Dubai, UAE – Crossing the Emirates II
Tashkeel, Dubai, UAE – Mawtini (curator Lateefa bint Maktoum)
2011 Viridian Gallery, NYC (curator Elisabeth Sussman, Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art)
Arts & Theater Institute, Prague, Czech Republic – Prague Quadrennial
2010 Rak Hospital, Kas Al Khaimah, UAE – Tracking the Emirates (curator Kurt Klum, Swiss Art Gate)
Bastakiya Art Fair, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE – Nishan
2009 The Tenri Cultural Institute of New York, NY, NY – Emergence (curator Koan Jeff Baysa)
San Servolo Palazzina 11, Venice, Italy – Emerge
Walsh Gallery, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ – Lilliput (curators Jeanne Brasille and Asha Ganpat)
2008 Rewak Gallery, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, U.A.E – Here and the Elsewhere (curator Isak Berbic)
2006 Pleiades Gallery, New York, NY (curator Elisabeth Sussman, Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art)
Long Island Foundation for the Arts & Sciences, Loveladies, NJ (curator Carter Foster, Curator of Drawings, Whitney Museum of American Art)
Phoenix Gallery, New York, NY (curator Tricia Yunjoo Paik, Curatorial Assistant, Museum of Modern Art)
The Alexandria Library, Alexandria, Egypt – 2nd Biennale of the Artist Book (curator Gamal Lamie)
2005 Palace of Art, Cairo Opera House, Cairo, Egypt – Form through Light (curator Mohamed Abouelnaga)
2004 Ceres Gallery, New York, NY (curator Fereshteh Daftari, Assistant Curator of Painting & Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art)
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY – 24th Annual Artists-In-The-Marketplace Exhibition (curators Lydia Yee and Amy Rosenblum Martin, The Bronx Museum)
The Rotenda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY – Reduce/Reuse/Reexamine (curators Janet Riker and Meridith McNeal, The Rotenda Gallery and Jennifer McGregor, Wave Hill Glyndor Gallery)
2003 Viridian Artists, Inc., New York, NY (curator Robert Rosenblum, Chief Curator, Guggenheim Museum)
Silvermine Guild Galleries, New Canaan, CT – The 54th Art of the Northeast (curator Harry Philbrick, Director, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art)
BAM Natman Room, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY – SONYA (curator Danny Simmons, Trustee, Brooklyn Academy of Music)
2002 Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Pratt Institute, New York, NY (curator Fereshteh Daftari, Assistant Curator of Painting & Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art)
2001 Phoenix Gallery, New York, NY (curator Fereshteh Daftari, Assistant Curator of Painting & Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art)
2000 Worth Ryder Gallery, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA – Beyond Boundaries,
(curator Maryam Ovissi)
Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX – Artcapades
Macy Gallery, Teacher’s College, Columbia University, New York, NY- The Rose and the Nightingale
(curator Kendal Kennedy, Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University)
1999 Greenwich Arts Council, Greenwich, CT – 1x1x1: Visions of the Millennium (curator Kendal
Kennedy, Director, Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University)
1998 Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY (curator Matthew Deleget)
1996 Pratt Institute Library, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY – “Out of Print/When Language Meets Form”, (Exhibition in conjunction with the symposium Writing the Arts, participants included Allen Ginsberg, Robert C. Morgan, & Adrian Piper)
1994 Palazzo Casali, Etruscan Museum, Cortona, Italy – La Nostra Arte
1993 Tower 1 Lobby, World Trade Center, New York, NY (curator Eleonor Moretta, Director, Shaefler Gallery, Pratt Institute)
Artist Talks / Panels
Advisory Board Member, LAGI (Land Art Generator Initiative), 2017-present
Committee Member, The 24th International Symposium on Electronic Art, June 23-30, 2018, Durban University of Technology, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, 2018
Committee Member, The 23rd International Symposium on Electronic Art, XVI Internatioal Festival, June 11 – 18, 2017, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia, 2017
Panelist, SIKKA Art Fair, Dubai, UAE, moderated by Sabrina DeTurk, March 19, 2015
Panelist, Second International Biennale for the Artist Book 2006, The Alexandria Library, Alexandria, Egypt, April 2006
Panelist, The Fulbright Egyptian Student Program, Caricature Sculpture/Fine Arts/Photography, The Fulbright Commission, Cairo, Egypt, December 2004
Speaker, The Rose and the Nightingale, Millbank Chapel, Columbia University, New York, NY, March 2000
Visiting Artist, Macy Gallery, Teacher’s College, Columbia University, New York, NY, March 2000
Panelist, 1x1x1: Visions of the Millennium, Greenwich Arts Council, Greenwich, CT, January 2000
Constitution Committee member, SONYA Open Studios, Brooklyn, NY, 2002
Catalogues
Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris, France, Sacrees Graines, exhibition catalogue, 2016
The Painting Center, NYC, The Retrieval of the Beautiful, exhibition catalogue, 2016
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, ISEA2015, The 21st International Symposium on Electronic Art, exhibition catalogue, 2015
Tashkeel, Dubai, UAE, Sustaining Identity, exhibition catalogue, 2015
Zayed University, UAE, ISEA2014, The 20th International Symposium on Electronic Art, exhibition catalogue, 2014
Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE, Cartographies; Mapping Intersections and Counterpoints, exhibition catalogue, 2014
Swiss Art Gate, Dubai, UAE, Tracking the Emirates, exhibition catalogue, 2010
Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, Lilliput, exhibition catalogue, 2009
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY, 24th Annual A.I.M Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, 2004
The Rotenda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, and Wave Hill Glyndor Gallery, Bronx NY, Reduce/Reuse/Reexamine, exhibition catalogue, 2004
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO, A Sense of Place, exhibition catalogue, 2004
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, Juried Alumni Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, 2002
University of Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden, 12th International Conference of IWSF, exhibition catalogue, 2001
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, Beyond Boundaries, exhibition catalogue, 2000
Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX, Artcapades, exhibition catalogue, 2000
Bibliography
Legrand, Amandine, Exposition Graines Sacrées – Institut des Cultures d’Islam, www.artistikrezo.com, October 28, 2016
Tisseyre, Sarah, «Sacrées Graines», quand le couscous pose des question, www.rfi.fr, October 17, 2016
Doucouré, Samba and Huê Trinh Nguyên, « Sacrées graines » : le couscous fait roi, www.saphirnews.com, September 7, 2016
Canestrier, Edith, « Sacrées Graines », edithcanestrier.wordpress.com, September, 2016
Sorgatz, Mike, “The Retrieval of the Beautiful , www.artinnewyorkcity.com, June 21, 2016
Ali, M, ‘Shifting’ by Banu Colak & Naz Shahrokh, www.dubainewspost.com, May 3, 2016
Dahlawia, Fazial, Shifting, a new art exhibition reinterpreting our world-All about interconnectedness, www.buro247.me, May 3, 2016
Egerton, Laura, “Raw Materials: Crafting as Fine Art”, Vision Magazine, September 2015
Dessurne, Elisha, “Maintaining the present: A Connective Effort in Dubai”, Ziwira, September 4, 2015
Silveira, Danilo, “Substainable Art”, Medalhao Persa, Summer 2015, p.12-15
Kalsi, Jyoti, “Expressions of Sustainability”, Gulf News, April 15, 2015
Grahm, Anne, “Naz Shahrokh”, Art Reveal Magazine, Issue 3, April 2015, p.46-51
Frey, Andrew, “New Artist Feature Fall2014”, CultureHall, Feature Issue 113, October 8-November 4, 2014
Rutigliano, Dario,”Naz Shahrokh: Interview”, LandEscape Art Press, November 2014 Special Issue, p.20-35
Pirillo, Francesca, “Naz Shahrokh: Interview”, Made In Mind Magazine, Issue 01, Spring 2014, p.3-12
McEneaney, Caroline, “Let’s get this Show on the Road”. Time Out Abu Dhabi, February 2014, Vol. 13, Issue 5, p.18
Kazan, Sophie, “The Conceptual Artist Naz Shahrokh – The Nature of Art “, Islamic ArtsMagazine.com, 2012
Parker, Sharon, “Naz Shahrokh: Remembering, Recycling and Roots”, Contemporary Practices, March 2011, vol. 8, p.204
Etherington, Victoria, “A Fresh Perspective”, Gulf News Magazine, June 2010, p.39
Mehassien, Enas, “Insurgency Draws Beauty in Abu Dhabi “, Emarat Alyoum, April 28, 2010, p.24
Kassed, Salman, “59 Artworks Exhibition in Abu Dhabi “, Al Ittihad, April 27, 2010, p.21
Younes, Abeer, “Raw Materials and a Variety of Decorative Art in the Exhibition”, Al Bayan, April 27, 2010, p.38
Wilks, Jon, “Journey’s End”, Time Out Abu Dhabi, April 2010, Vol. 9, Issue 4, p.44
Seaman, Anna, “Graffiti Helps University Students link Islam with Art”, The National, October 28, 2009, Volume 2, Issue 195, p.8
Genocchio, Benjamin, “A Chance to Fill Up on Visual Treats”, New York Times, April 25, 2004, Section 14, p.93
Boros, Phyllis A.S. “Silvermine Showcases Some of the Regions Finest Artworks”, Connecticut Post, May 11, 2003, p.E1
Eliasoph, Philip, “Getting an Eyeful at Silvermine”, Connecticut Post, May 25, 2003, p.G1
Streitfeld, L.P., “54th Art of the Northeast”, The Advocate & Greenwich Time, May 18, 2003, p.D3
Golonu, Berin, “Beyond Boundaries”, ART PAPERS, November/December, 2000, p.52
Lvof, Nan, “72 artists focus on ‘1x1x1: Visions of the Millennium”, Greenwich Time, December 6, 1999, p.A8