Sheida Soleimani
Images
Biography
Sheida Soleimani’s work explores intersections of art and activism, melding sculpture, performance, film and photography to highlight critical perspectives on events across the Middle East, unpicking the complex power dynamics between the region and western nations. Soleimani’s work interrogates the dissemination of information in digital contexts, adapting found images from press and social media leaks to exist within alternative scenarios. Her photographs document constructed sets within her studio, in which repeating images carve out trompe l’oeil perspectives in a visual metaphor for the competing political narratives relayed by her source materials.
Sheida Soleimani (b. 1990) received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2015. Recent solo exhibitions include The Banner Project: Ghostwriter, MFA Boston, Boston, MA, USA (2023); Ghostwriter, Edel Assanti, London, UK (2023); Negotiators, Kunsthaus Photoforum Pasquart, Biel, CH (2022); Ghostwriter, Providence College Galleries, Providence, USA (2022); ILVA, Castello San Basilio, Basilicata, Italy (2022); Levers of Power, Silver Eye Centre for Photography, Pittsburgh, USA (2021); Hotbed, Denny Dimin Gallery, New York, USA (2020); Medium of Exchange, Southern Utah Museum of Art, Utah; CUE Art Foundation, New York; Cincinnati Contemporary Art, Cincinnati and Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, all USA (2018-2019). Selected group exhibitions include Activism and Feminism, South London Gallery, London, UK (2024); Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America, PAFA, Philadelphia, USA (2023); A Trillion Sunsets, ICP, New York, USA (2022); Immune Project, Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland (2022); Denunciation!, ACC Gallery, Weimar, Germany (2021); deCordova Biennial, deCordova Museum of Art, Lincoln, USA (2019); Ecologies of Darkness, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany (2019). Soleimani lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.
Bibliography
Works
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Crying Quince, Laughing Apple, 2022
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Safar, 2022
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Safar, 2022
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Safar, 2022
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Khoy, 2021
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Khooroos (rooster) named Manoocher, 2021
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Noon-o-namak (bread and salt), 2021
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1/8/20, 2020
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Iran & Iraq, 2020
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Italy & Libya, 2019
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Dukhan Field, Qatar, 2018
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Medium of Exchange, 2017
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Director of Central Intelligence Agency, United States & Iraq, 2017
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Minister of Defense, Saudi Arabia, 2017
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Former Vice President and Secretary of State, United States & Halliburton CEOs, 2017
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Perfect Moment, 2016
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Revolutionary Guard, 2016
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Vitriolic Acid, 2016
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Atefeh, 2016
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Reyhaneh (life for a life), 2016
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Delara (1), 2015
Media
Exhibitions
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Sheida Soleimani: Ghostwriter
16 March - 13 May 2023Opening reception | Thursday 16 March 6-8pm Edel Assanti is pleased to present Sheida Soleimani: Ghostwriter. Following the work’s debut at Providence College Galleries, Providence, and concurrent with a presentation...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani: Medium of Exchange
26 October - 21 December 2018Private View | Thursday 25 October 6-8 pm Edel Assanti is pleased to present Medium of Exchange, Sheida Soleimani’s second exhibition with the gallery. In her latest body of work,...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani: To Oblivion
20 January - 18 February 2017Private View | Friday 20 January, 6-8pm Edel Assanti is pleased to present To Oblivion, Sheida Soleimani’s first UK solo exhibition. Soleimani’s practice expounds on the photographic traces of women...Read more
News
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Sheida Soleimani in Art In America
'Sheida Soleimani: Look Mum! Training the camera on their parents, three photographers renegotiate the ethics of their medium.' by Max Norman 27 November 2024If the personal becomes political in Ledare’s and Engman’s work, the political becomes personal in “Ghostwriter,” an ongoing series Sheida Soleimani began in 2020. The...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Art in America
'Sheida Soleimani On Her Collectible Print for A.i.A.’s Spring Issue' by Tessa Solomon 4 April 202404 April 2024 Each issue of A.i.A. comes with a limited-edition artist’s print, and in our Spring issue, we invited Sheida Soleimani to contribute a...Read more -
Jodie Carey and Sheida Soleimani in The Evening Standard
'The best free exhibitions in London – get your culture fix and keep your money for coffee' by Elizabeth Gregory and Nancy Durrant 14 March 202414 March 2024 Want to have a fun day out but also save those pennies? These free London art exhibitions are perfect. New year, new...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in The British Journal of Photography
'Feminism’s lost decade? Artists reflect on today’s turbulent politics' by Diane Smyth 13 March 202413 March 2024 Featuring artists from across the world, this south London show surveys lens-based activism beyond straight documentary. The last decade has seen key...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in FAD Magazine
'6 Art Exhibitions featuring Women and Queer Artists' by Jessica Wan 11 March 202411 March 2024 In light of transnational struggles such as violence, discrimination, labour and reproductive freedom faced by women, queer and trans people across the...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Hyperallergic
'Inside the Life of Bird-Rehabilitator-Artist-Professor Sheida Soleimani' by Sarah Rose Sharp 5 March 202405 March 2024 The artist’s work is the cognitive equivalent of a rock-climbing wall, in which visual handholds open up interpretive pathways. To hear Iranian-American...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Il Giornale dell'Arte
'Future Present | Soleimani spokesman on the Iranian question' by Gilda Bruno 30 November 202330 November 2023 Recently acquired by the V&A in London, the photographer's Ghostwriter series is inspired by her parents' life stories and the events that...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Kayhan Life
'Artist Sheida Soleimani Exhibits in London, Depicts Intergenerational Trauma in Her Art' by Katy Shahandeh 5 May 202305 May 2023 Sheida Soleimani is an Iranian-American artist born in 1990 to parents who fled Iran in the mid-1980s for political reasons. Her father...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in the Financial Times
'Her parents survived torture and separation to flee Iran. Her art tells their story' by Lilah Raptopoulos 3 May 202303 May 2023 Photographer Sheida Soleimani’s sumptuous collages reveal dark truths about exile and trauma. Sheida Soleimani sits with me in the back of a...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Mother Tongue
'Mother of Birds' by Alex Zafiris 24 April 202324 April 2023 For artist Sheida Soleimani, care is an art form and revolution is a way of life. The Iranian-American artist Sheida Soleimani is...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in The New York Times
'What Would Ben Franklin Say? Artists Weigh the Dream of Democracy' by Hilarie M. Sheets 23 March 202323 March 2023 In Philadelphia, the sun rises on a bold collaboration between two museums. It’s just a few blocks on Arch Street between the...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in BRUZZ
'Sheida Soleimani exhibits in Brussels: 'A gesture of care is an act of resistance'' by Kurt Snoekx 10 November 202210 November 2022 A few locks of hair swirling from a hijab led to the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran. For Iranian-American artist, activist...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in The New York Times Style Magazine
'Sheida Soleimani’s Art Is for the Birds' by Marisa Mazria-Katz 9 August 20229 August 2022 The artist’s home and studio in Providence, R.I., is, among other things, a wildlife clinic. Sheida Soleimani speaks the language of birds,...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani at Photoforum Pasquart
3 July 20223 July 2022 Edel Assanti is pleased to announce Sheida Soleimani's solo exhibition NEGOTIATORS at Photoforum Pasquart, on view through 4 September. The exhibition is...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Juliet
'In conversation with Sheida Soleimani' by Mariavittoria Pirera 26 May 202226 May 2022 The Iranian-American artist and professor Sheida Soleimani (b. 1990) has distinguished herself on the international art scene for her unconventional photographs. As...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Boston Art Review
'Home Truths: Sheida Soleimani's Trenchant Tableaus' by Dr. Jordan Amirkhani 21 May 2022'The exile knows that in a secular and contingent world, homes are always provisional.[...] Seeing 'the entire world as a foreign land' makes possible originality...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani at Providence College Galleries
'On the Wall: Sheida Soleimani' from 30 March to 30 July 2022 30 March 202230 March 2022 On the Wall is PCG’s annual commission of large-scale artworks applied directly to the walls of Reilly Gallery. As part of an...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in BOMB Magazine
'Critique and Care: Sheida Soleimani' by Cassie Packard 27 September 202127 September 2021 Photomontages that expose power and brutality. Sheida Soleimani, Proof, 2021, Archival pigment print, 101.6 x 76.2 cm, 40 x 30 in. Sheida...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Silver Eye
'An Interview with Sheida Soleimani' by Camryn Drabenstadt 30 March 202130 March 2021 Sheida Soleimani is an Iranian-American artist who makes artwork at the intersection of installation, sculpture, and photography, which deals with themes of...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in PHROOM
'An Interview with Sheida Soleimani' by Giangiacomo Cirla 24 March 202124 March 2021 Giangiacomo Cirla: Hello Sheida, I'm pleased to start this conversation with you since I'm sure I can address various issues that I...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in the British Journal of Photography
'In the studio with Sheida Soleimani' by Osman Can Yerebakan 18 December 202018 December 2020 The Iranian-American artist invites us into her converted, 19th century barn in Rhode Island, where politically charged installations co-exist with her hobby...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Hyperallergic
'Tracing Networks of Political Corruption in Sheida Soleimani’s Slick, Hyper-Stylized Tableaux' by Cassie Packard 18 December 202018 December 2020 'Hotbed' zeroes in on the places where these power relations and abuses between the US and Iran make themselves most visible. Sheida...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Photoworks
#6 Perform: Sheida Soleimani 3 April 202003 April 2020 Iranian-American multimedia artist Sheida Soleimani, discusses her wider practice and image making process. Her work functions as an analysis of the correlation...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in SPOT Magazine: Houston Center for Photography
'Viscous Violence: Sheida Soleimani’s Oil-Slicked Nightmare' by Kate Kraczon 20 March 202020 March 2020 Gulf of Oman. Nuclear deal. Sanctions. Coronavirus. The contemporary geopolitical entry points into Sheida Soleimani’s practice are expansive. And urgent. Her relentless...Read more -
Oren Pinhassi and Sheida Soleimani in ArtAsiaPacific
'Roundup From the Armory Show 2020' by Paul Laster 6 March 202006 March 2020 The Armory Show, which returned to Piers 90 and 94 on New York's Hudson River for its 26th edition boasted 183 exhibitors...Read more -
Oren Pinhassi and Sheida Soleimani in Artsy
'The 10 Best Booths at The Armory Show' by Alina Cohen 5 March 202005 March 2020 The lovely lavender backdrop at Edel Assanti’s booth belies the heavy political content in the exhibited work. The hue references Iran’s president,...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in The Flemish Financial Times
'Politics is never far away with Soleimani, the photographer' by Thomas Peeters 14 January 202014 January 2020 She does not belong to the family and definitely wouldn't mourn the death of Qassem Soleimani, b ut politics is never far...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani at Harlan Levey Projects
Solo exhibition 'Medium of Exchange' from 09 January to 21 March 2020 9 January 202009 January 2020 Harlan Levey Projects is pleased to present Medium of Exchange, Sheida Soleimani's first exhibition with the gallery. In her latest body of...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Artnet News
'Which Emerging Artist Dominated 2019? 12 Art-World Players Share Their Thoughts' by Mary Ellen Goeke 21 December 201921 December 2019 There is never any shortage of cutting-edge work by rising art stars to get your fill of, and this year was no...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Vice
'Sheida Soleimani Combines Photography with Sculpture, Collage, and Film with Surprising Results' by Vice Staff 8 July 201908 July 2019 In our annual photo issue, Sheida Soleimani shares new work inspired by Iran’s oil production. This portfolio appears in VICE Magazine's 2019...Read more -
Sheidia Soleimani in FAD Magazine
'11 artists we love at Photo London 2019' by Mark Westall 16 May 201916 May 2019 Photo London opened last night and we had a quick look around. Below are ten artists/photographers you should search and when you...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in The Independent
'Are we finally close to fixing the problem with photography's gender balance?' by Suze Olbrich 16 March 201916 March 2019 At the UK’s biggest photographic fair, Photo London, which opens at Somerset House today, 40 per cent of their showing artists are...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani at University of New Hampshire Museum of Art
Group exhibition 'Messengers: Artists as Witnesses' from 24 January to 30 March 2019 16 February 201916 February 2019 Ten contemporary regional and national artists create work that gives voice to others, acting as witnesses by recounting significant events and personal...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Artforum
'Critics' Pick: Sheida Soleimani: Medium of Exchange' by Daniel Culpan 3 December 201803 December 2018 In “Medium of Exchange,” Sheida Soleimani dramatizes the play of domination and dependence between the US and oil-rich nations. Featuring an array...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Time Out
'Sheida Soleimani: Medium of Exchange' by Eddy Frankel 31 October 201831 October 2018 Imagine if Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were lovers, or if Henry Kissinger was engaged to Angola’s minister of petroleum, or if...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Libération
'Vert et Contre Tout' by Jérémy Piette 26 October 201826 October 2018 Enduite de peinture verte à la va-vite, cette femme-alien ou femme-green allongée dans un décor morcelé, camouflage volontairement foiré, se fait marcher...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Unseen Platform
'Sheida Soleimani presents a coded critique of the U.S.-Middle East oil trade' 25 October 201825 October 2018 Sheida presents a coded critique of the U.S.-Middle East oil trade with her distinctive use of collage, film, sculpture and photography. PERCEPTION...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in the Brooklyn Rail
'Sheida Soleimani: Medium of Exchange' by Matthew Biro 5 June 201805 June 2018 For Rosalind Krauss, the pivotal difference between Dada photomontage and Surrealist photography had to do with the relative presence of either the...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Hyperallergic
'An Artist Considers the Absurdity of Ending the Iran Nuclear Deal' interview by Sarah Rose Sharp 21 May 201821 May 2018 Nothing surprises the Iranian-American artist Sheida Soleimani anymore, whose latest body of work lampoons the leaders of the Organization of the Petroleum...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani at CUE Art Foundation
'Medium of Exchange' from June 5 to July 14 2018 14 May 201814 May 2018 CUE Art Foundation is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Sheida Soleimani, curated by Kate Shepherd. Titled Medium of Exchange, the...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani at Atlanta Contemporary
Group Exhibition 'Medium of Exchange' from 12 April 2018 to 29 July 2018 18 April 201818 April 2018 With her exhibition Medium of Exchange, Sheida Soleimani examines how oil is interchangeable with currency and the corruption at the center of...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Bust
'Artist Sheida Soleimani Creates Petroleum Pin-Ups To Fetishize The World's Reliance On Oil' by Anna Greer 3 April 201803 April 2018 Sheida Soleimani’s understanding of the world has always been shaped by art and injustice. Both of the Iranian-American artist’s parents opposed the...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in the Guardian
'Art imitating life: how this year's Armory Show got political' by Nadja Sayej 15 March 201815 March 2018 New York’s biggest contemporary art fair saw a range of topical pieces ranging from school shootings to Harvey Weinstein. Art fairs are...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Artnews
'Ceramic Tools, Henry Kissinger, and Gobs of Vaseline: A Report from the Wilds of NADA New York' by Alex Battaglia and Alex Greenberger 10 March 201810 March 2018 Weathered fairgoers who braved a wintry mix of snow and rain for the Armory Show on Wednesday could take solace in the...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Hyperallergic
'Lapping Up NADA New York’s Lush Portraits and Giant Tongue Sculptures' by Benjamin Sutton 10 March 201810 March 2018 Some art fairs have themes. Some art fairs cater to fans of a particular medium. Others are constrained by geography or material....Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Artspace
'8 Artists You Can't Miss from NADA New York 2018' by Artspace Editorial 8 March 201808 March 2018 Despite winter storm Quinn laying down a threatening layer of snow upon the streets of New York City less than 24 hours...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani at NADA
Booth from 02 to 06 and from 08 to 11 March 2018 2 March 201802 March 2018 Edel Assanti is pleased to present works from Shedia Soleimani's new series Medium of Exchange. The full series will be exhibited at...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Harper's Bazaar
'American-Iranian Artist Sheida Soleimani's Art Activism' by Katrina Kuffer 14 January 201814 January 2018 Oral histories, critical perspectives and socio-political injustices against Iranian women are tackled through the visual language of the first generation American-Iranian artist...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani solo exhibition at Atlanta Contemporary, Cue Art Foundation and Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Centre
'Sheida Soleimani: Medium of Exchange' on view in 2018 1 January 201801 January 2018 Three US institutions, the Atlanta Contemporary, GA, Cue Art Foundation, NY, and Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Centre, OH, announced solo exhibitions by the...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani interview in Candid Magazine
'Candid Magazine Interviews The American Artist Sheida Soleimani' by Issey Scott 1 September 201701 September 2017 Sheida Soleimani is an artist who trained at the University of Cincinnati and the Cranbook Academy of Art in Michigan. Her work,...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Refinery29
'The Artist Remembering The Forgotten Tortured Women Of Iran' by Nathalie Olah 9 February 201709 February 2017 With so many news outlets reporting constantly across multiple platforms from some of the world’s fiercest conflicts, most of us will admit...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Photomonitor
'Sheida Soleimani: To Oblivion' by Anna McNay 30 January 201730 January 2017 Brought up with the stories of her parents’ dramatic escapes as political refugees from Iran, Sheida Soleimani (b. 1990) only discovered that...Read more -
Sheida Soleimani in Studio International
'Sheida Soleimani: ‘Does someone really want to buy an image of an executed woman and hang it in their home?’' by Rosanna McLaughlin 25 January 201725 January 2017 At first glance, Iranian-American artist Sheida Soleimani’s artworks look like pop art for the digital age. But among her psychedelic photo-collages, and...Read more
Events