This month, Michael Reid Berlin will present the first major international survey for award-winning Tehran-born, Eora/Sydney-based multidisciplinary artist Nasim Nasr. Drawing together poignant, politically urgent and visually arresting photographs from key bodies of work, Nasr’s first solo show with Michael Reid opens as she embarks on the prestigious Cité Internationale des Arts residency in Paris, awarded by Creative Australia, and will trace the themes that have woven through her practice over the past decade.
Since completing her Master of Visual Arts (Research) at the University of South Australia in 2011, Nasr’s work has sought to express symmetry or counterbalance – a form of harmony – between the cultural and intellectual separation of West and East, exploring, as she says, “how they can come together in one image, in one performance … how they might reject each other, as well as complete each other.” Working across photography, video, performance, sound and sculpture, she highlights the lived experience of cultural difference in her past and present homelands.
A finalist in this year’s Fisher’s Ghost Art Award and Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Nasr previously received the People’s Choice Award in the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, Australia’s most prestigious photography prize. Her works have been shown across Australia and abroad – most recently at Photo London – and are held in major collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Powerhouse Museum, Artbank and the Parliament House Art Collection.
Alongside final editions of historical photographs, available works will include Nasr’s sinuous glass sculptures – reinterpretations of ashkdan, or Persian “tear-pots”, historically crafted by women of the Qajar dynasty as vessels for grief and resilience.
We look forward to welcoming visitors to this celebration of a singular voice in Australian contemporary art. Works are now available to preview and acquire by request.