Anahita Norouzi
To Look Down from the Sky
From January 9 to February 22, 2025
Galerie Nicolas Robert is pleased to present To Look Down from the Sky, a solo exhibition by Anahita Norouzi. This exhibition is a study of visuality in operative actions, in which the land surveyor wanders between the archaeological site, the military zone, and the oilfield. The works expose the expansion of the field of view as the main paradigm of imperial visualization—either through the aestheticization of exploited land (landscape photography) or top-down surveillance (aerial mapping or military simulation)—reinforcing control while rendering the people and cultures it surveys invisible. Looking away from the lens of imperial optics, the series raises questions about restitution, entangled with cultural loss and national dignity, by dusting off the fragments of stolen antiquities and recapturing the images of anti-imperialist struggle.
Text by Nima Esmailpour
Anahita Norouzi (b. 1983, Tehran) lives and works in Montreal. She holds advanced degrees in Fine Arts and Graphic Design from Concordia University. Norouzi’s work has been shown internationally, including at BIENALESUR, the International Contemporary Art Biennial of South America (Buenos Aires), Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. She has received numerous grants, fellowships, and awards, most notably, the Grantham Foundation Creation Award, Liz Crockford Artist Fund Award, the Vermont Studio Center Merit. She is the winner of Contemporary art award of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (2023) and Impressions residency at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2022), and the finalist for the Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize and the Sobey Art Award (2023).
We are pleased to announce the launch of Anahita Norouzi's monograph titled Nebulae, on January 9, from 5 to 6 pm, published by the MNBAQ, in honour of her receiving the 2023 Contemporary Art Award. Copies will be available for sale at the gallery.