Ghazaleh Avarzamani
Ghazaleh Avarzamani (born in Tehran, Iran; lives and works between Toronto and London/UK) is an artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation. She is interested in how institutional structures and educational methodologies shape psycho-social constructions of knowledge and uses her practice as a way to question dominant power structures. Her large-scale works typically involve interactivity, and she frequently makes art in and about public space, utilizing signs and symbols familiar from pop culture and everyday life. Board games, origami, children’s playground equipment, and sports are all recurrent in her practice as objects that demonstrate the norms, rules, and invisible structures that shape human relations within society. For Avarzamani, the creation of spaces that are both inviting and potentially hazardous is a way to explore how games and play can be understood as tools that deconstruct, replicate, or transform public space. By examining the laws, rules, and systems that govern human behaviour, her work suggests different possibilities for disrupting hegemonic systems of power.
Ghazaleh Avarzamani trained in painting at Azad Art University, Tehran, and holds an MFA from Central Saint Martins, London. She is currently a resident at the TKE (Tracey Emin) Studios in Margate, UK (2023) and recently presented at the Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh (2023) and India (2023). Avarzamani has presented solo exhibitions at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2021), MOCA Toronto (2021), Koffler Centre of the Arts, Toronto (2019), Ab-Anbar Gallery, Tehran (2016), Asia House, London (2014), and Light Gallery, London (2013), and has participated in international residencies, including at the Delfina Foundation (2022) and SOMA Mexico City (2018). Her work is held in private and public collections, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Rockefeller Centre, Arsenal Contemporary, MOCA Toronto, TD Art Collection and Red Mansion. Avarzamani has been longlisted (2022) for the Sobey Art Award..
Recent Exhibitions
Chapitre III - Group exhibition
From April 4 to May 25, 2024
Art Toronto
From October 26-29, 2023
Particular Good Game for Self Punishment
From April 15, to May 20, 2023
Particular Good Game for Self Punishment
From February 10 to March 13, 2021
The Armory Show - New York
From September 7-10, 2023
