Shirana Shahbazi Born 1974 in Tehran, Iran

Lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland

Shahbazi is known for her architectural installations. In 2015, she was involved in the renovation project of the headquarters of the Zürcher Kantonalbank, and in 2017 she created an intervention for the design of the office of the Axel Springer branch. In 2025, she conceived the façade for House for Five Women—a residence for women who have survived war, violence, and social injustice—in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in collaboration with Hazima Smajlović, NGO Naš Izvor, Engineers Without Borders, and the architects TEN.

Shirana Shahbazi’s works are found in the collections of major institutions worldwide, including the Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Fotomuseum Winterthur; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Tate Modern, London; National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen; and Sprengel Museum, Hannover, among others. Important past solo exhibitions include (selection): Kunsthaus Hamburg (2018); Istituto Svizzero, Milan (2018); Museum Fotogalleriet, Oslo (2017); KINDL, Berlin (2017); Camera Austria, Graz (2016); and Kunsthalle, Bern (2014). Major group exhibitions in recent years include (selection): Now, Brooklyn Museum (2022); Images, Vevey (2022); Smoke and Mirrors, Kunsthaus Zürich (2020); Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2021); Niko Pirosmani, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles (2019); Swiss Pavilion: House Tour, 16th International Architecture Biennale, Venice (2018); and The Other and Me, Sharjah Art Museum (2014). In 2025, Shahbazi will present a solo exhibition at Musée Athena in Geneva, connected to the Prix de la Société des Arts. In 2026, she is preparing a solo show at Kunstmuseum Lucerne.

Over the course of her career, Shirana Shahbazi has developed a distinctive and conceptually rigorous approach to photography. Her work explores the medium’s inherent dualities—its precision in representing reality and its ability to capture the ephemeral—through a practice that spans traditional analogue techniques such as Ektachrome and silkscreen printing. Her imagery ranges from strikingly abstract pictorial compositions to carefully staged portraits and spontaneous documentary-style captures of people and places she encounters. Whether constructed or incidental, her photographs reflect the same compositional precision and cosmopolitan sensibility, drawing from her travels through Europe, Japan, India, and Iran.

Often conceptually closer to painting than conventional photography, Shahbazi's large-format works are marked by an acute sensitivity to light, space, and structure. Her use of vibrant color fields and stark black-and-white contrasts demonstrates her deep engagement with the formal language of image-making.

The exhibition space itself plays a central role in Shahbazi's artistic vision. Her shows are thoughtfully staged and often include wall paintings, photographic posters, color fields, and, most recently, ceramic surfaces, creating immersive and spatially aware installations. A previous site-specific commission was realized in 2023 for the new Swiss Life Bahnhof on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse.