Announcing representation of Hadieh Shafie

11 Nov 2021

Yavuz Gallery is delighted to announce the representation of celebrated Iranian-American artist Hadieh Shafie.

In our first solo collaboration, Yavuz Gallery will present Ripples into Infinity, at Abu Dhabi Art from 17 to 21 November 2021. This presentation will showcase new scrolled paper works from Shafie’s ‘Transition’ series, as well as text-based drawings titled ‘Safar’.

Born in Tehran, Iran in 1969 and currently residing in the United States, Shafie’s works consist of hand constructed intricate designs with low-relief paper sculpture reminiscent of traditional Middle Eastern art. Shafie’s compositions include hand-written and printed Farsi text hidden within the folds of elaborate paper spirals. Both process-oriented and impossibly refined, Shafie’s skilful works are often monumental in scale, overwhelming the viewer with a visual feast of colour. In the new ‘Transition’ series, the contained language comprises of fragments of Farsi language and poetry. The primordial emotions of love and passion are folded into pages of a ‘book’, exploring a more intense condition of love and spirituality. 

Shafie’s work is in major institutional collections including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA); The Victoria and Albert Museum (UK); Bank of America, The Columbus Museum, (USA); Sheldon Museum of Art (USA) ; The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art (USA); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); The British Museum (UK); and The Brooklyn Museum of Art (USA), amongst others. Shafie’s work is currently exhibited at Bendigo Art Gallery, Australia as part of the exhibition SOUL fury which runs until 30 January 2022. 

She holds an MFA in Imaging and Digital Arts from the University of Maryland (USA) and an MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute (USA). Shafie has been the recipient of grants from the Kress Foundation, RTKL and MSAC Individual Artist Grant (2010 and 2008) and the Mary Sawyers Baker awards from the William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund (2009) and Franz and Virginia Bader Fund (2011). In 2011, Shafie was shortlisted for the prestigious Jameel Prize, Victoria and Albert Museum (UK) and in 2017 nominated for the Anonymous Was a Woman Award, New York Foundation of the Arts (USA).