Nairy Baghramian
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1971 (age 54–55)
Nairy Baghramian | |
|---|---|
| Born | Նաիրի Բաղրամյան (Armenian)
نائیری باغرامیان (Persian) 1971 (age 54–55) Isfahan, Iran |
| Education | Berlin University of the Arts |
| Movement | Modernism, Abstract art, Post-minimalism, Minimalism, Contemporary Art |
Nairy Baghramian (born 1971) is an Iranian-born German visual artist of Armenian ethnicity.[1] Since 1984, she has lived and worked in Berlin.[1][2] Using an extensive repertoire of techniques, materials, and forms, Baghramian’s site-responsive sculptures and installations explore the relationship between architecture, objects, and the human figure.
When the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum selected Baghramian as a finalist for the 2020 Hugo Boss Prize, they described Baghramian’s practice as: "...[Exploring] the workings of the body, gender, and public and private space."[3]
Baghramian was born in 1971, in Isfahan, Iran,[1] the youngest child in an Armenian Iranian family.[4] She and her mother flew to East Berlin in 1984, when she was 13,[4] and later reunited in West Berlin with their family.[1][5] She attended Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin).[5][6]
In addition to her artistic practice, Baghramian worked at the women’s shelter that her sister Louise co-founded.[4]
Work
Baghramian creates sculptural installations that reimagine the workings of the body and its connection to the spaces it inhabits. [7] Inspired by dance classes she took as a child, Baghramian recalls her teacher speaking of the need to break down human movement into discrete elements.[3][8] Her work depicts abstract forms of bodies or body parts, often contemplating the brokenness or "prosthetic" relationship between the body and its environment.[9][10] Through a wide range of materials and techniques, Baghramian challenges traditional sculptural conventions, creating works that defy definitions and reveal new perspectives. [11] A process of listening to and questioning materials is critical to her practice. “I have a very classical way of working, a traditional way of thinking of materials,” she says. “To get the sense of the politics of the material and the shapes, I have to understand it.” [12]
For the Berlin Biennial, she collaborated with ninety-eight-year-old designer Janette Laverrière to create a set for her furniture design.[13][14]
In 2017, Baghramian's exhibition, Déformation Professionnelle, was on display in the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst.[15] This exhibition is the culmination of the artist's 18 sets of works from 1999 to 2016.[15] Déformation Professionnelle exhibits the artist's oeuvre while alluding to existing works in her field. Through a site-responsive approach that incorporates sculptural elements and photography, she challenges conventional perspectives on the connection between human body gestures and their functions.[16]
In 2019, Baghramian took part in Performa 19 , collaborating with the artist Maria Hassabi. Inspired by the portraits taken by Carlo Mollino in the 1960s, they created Entre Deux Actes (Ménage à Quatre).[17]
Between 2020 and 2021, Baghramian’s work was displayed in Ground/work at the Clark Art Institute. Creating Knee and Elbow, Baghramian was inspired by movement in the body. [18]
Recognition
In 2021, Baghramian received the 2022 Nasher Prize presented by the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.[19] She was later a member of the juries that selected Senga Nengudi (2023),[20] Otobong Nkanga (2024)[21] and Petrit Halilaj (2027)[22][23] for the Nasher Prize.
Exhibitions
- 2025: Niary Baghramian: nameless, Wiels, Brussels, Belgium [24]
- 2024: Nairy Baghramian: Jumbled Alphabet, South London Gallery, London, United Kingdom [25]
- 2023: The Façade Commission: Scratching the Back, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States [26]
- 2023: Nairy Baghramian: Jupon de Corps, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, United States [27]
- 2022: Nairy Baghramian: Modèle vivant, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, United States [28]
- 2019: SOFT POWER, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, United States;[29]
- 2017: documenta 14, Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany;[30]
- 2017: Déformation Professionelle, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria;
- 2016: S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium;
- 2015: Nairy Baghramian: Hand Me Down, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico;
- 2014: Sonae/Serralves Project 2014: Nairy Baghramian, Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal;
- 2014: Nairy Baghramian: French Curve/Slip of the Tongue, Bluhm Family Terrace, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States;
- 2014: Nairy Baghramian: Off the Rack, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany;
- 2013: Retainer, Sculpture Center, Long Island City, New York, United States;
- 2013: Nairy Baghramian: Fluffing the Pillows (Moorings, gurneys, Silos, Mops, News Rack, Railing), MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, United States;
- 2012: Nairy Baghramian: Class Reunion, The Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada;
- 2012: Fluffing the Pillows, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Awards
- 2025 – Art Basel Award, Basel, Switzerland
- 2023 – Nivola Award for Sculpture, Museo Nivola, Orani, Italy
- 2023 – Aspen Award for Art, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado
- 2022 – Nasher Prize, Dallas Texas;[19]
- 2020 – Hugo Boss Prize (finalist);[31]
- 2019 – Malcolm McLaren Award, Performa 19, New York, NY[32]
- 2016 – Zurich Art Prize, Zurich, Switzerland;[33]
- 2014 – Arnold-Bode Prize, Kassel, Germany;
- 2012 – Hector Prize, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany;
- 2007 – Ernst Schering Foundation Award
