Bita Ghezelayagh

Bita Ghezelayagh (born 1966, Florence, Italy) is an Iranian contemporary artist who lives and works in Tehran and London. Best known for her sculptural, textile-based and felting works that reclaim traditional Iranian crafting techniques, reinterpreting and transforming them into modern art. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in several collections, including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She was shortlisted for the Jameel Prize in 2011.

Biography Bita Ghezelayagh was born in Florence, Italy, in 1966. She returned to Iran with her family in 1968 and was brought up in Tehran. Ghezelayagh studied architecture at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-La Villette. She returned to Iran in 1994, where she worked on a building restoration project for the Iranian Calligraphers Association. She was also art director for three Iranian films, including Dariush Mehrjui's The Pear Tree.

In 2003, she began studying the traditional craft of felt-making and had her first solo exhibition in Tehran five years later. This was followed by other solo exhibitions, including a touring exhibition in the United Kingdom. Ghezelayagh has participated in group shows at the Sharjah Art Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Casa Árabe in Madrid, the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts and the San Antonio Museum of Art.

She is married to British author and journalist Christopher de Bellaigue.

Artistic Practice Ghezelayagh's practice focuses on textile-based media, particularly felt, drawing on traditional Iranian felting techniques. Her Felt Memories series (2008-2009) reinterprets the tradition of wearing talismans for protection. The series marked the first international solo exhibition of her work held at the Rose Issa Projects. According to the British Museum, he works replace the luxurious materials of historical talismanic often inscribed with prayers – with felt, incorporating modern symbols and texts. Reviewing her 2018 at the Leighton House Museum, Prospect noted that her work draws on Iran's textile traditions. Her use of reclaiming fragments of Persian carpets and traditional rural garments, such as felted shepherds' coats, places her art within a wider movement to preserve and reinterpret Iran's material culture.

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2020: Rethreading & Retracing: Textiles and Techniques by Bita Ghezelayagh, The Aga Khan Foundation, London

2018: Leighton House Museum, London

2017: Asia House, London

2013: The Letter that Never Arrived, Rose Issa Projects, London

2011: Albareh Gallery, Bahrain

2009-10: Namad: A Persian Journey in Felt, touring show: Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Quilters' Guild Collection, York, and Hawick Museum

2009: Felt Memories, Rose Issa Projects, London

2009: Silk and Felt, Golestan Gallery, Tehran

2007: Namad, Artists’ House (Khaneh Honarmandan), Tehran

Selected Group Exhibitionss 2023: The Resistance of Pen and Paper, Richard Saltoun Gallery, London

2023; The Future of Tradition, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London

2021: Epic Iran, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

2020: Zuleika Gallery, London

2017: Lajevardi Foundation, Tehran

2016: Shirin Gallery, Tehran

2014: Islamic Festival, Sharjah Museum of Contemporary Art (Sharjeh Art Museum), UAE

2014: Rose Issa Projects, London

2013: Caught in the Crossfire, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry

2011-13: Jameel Prize travelling exhibition of shortlisted artists -- Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Casa Arabe, Madrid; Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University; San Antonio Museum of Art

2011: Zendegi: Twelve Contemporary Iranian Artists, Beirut Exhibition Centre

2010-11: Miragens, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Brasilia

2010: Four Contemporary Iranian Artists, Art Dubai, Al Bastskiya Dubai

1996: Exhibition of Iranian Female Artists, Niavaran Cultural Centre, Tehran

1995: Exhibition of Iranian Female Artists, Niavaran Cultural Centre, Tehran

Collections The Jameel Foundation, Saudi Arabia

British Museum, London

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

National Museum of Scotland, Scotland

Royal Ontario Museum, Canada

Farjam Foundation, Dubai

Devi Art Foundation, Delhi

Lajevardi Foundation, Iran