Bita Ghezelayagh

Bita Ghezelayagh was born in Florence, Italy in 1966 and moved to Tehran in 1968. She now lives in London, and works between London and Tehran.

In 1984, at the height of the Iran-Iraq war, she went to Paris to study architecture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris La Villette, where she received and MA. She returned to Tehran in 1994, where she worked in building restoration for the Association of Iranian Calligraphers in Tehran (“Anjomane Khoshnevissan”). Ghezelayagh was also the art director of three notable Iranian films, including “The Pear Tree” (“Derakhte Golabi”) by Dariush Mehrjui.

In 2003 she started studying the traditional Iranian craft of felt-making and had her first solo exhibition at the House of Artists (“Khane Honarmandan”) in Tehran in 2008.

Her first international solo exhibition, “Felt Memories”, was at Rose Issa Projects in London (2009), followed by the UK touring solo exhibition, “Namad: A Persian Journey in Felt”, at The Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow; Quilt Museum, York; and Hawick Museum, Roxburgshire, Scotland (2009-2010). In 2009 she exhibited at the Golestan Gallery in Tehran, and in January 2011 at the Albahreh Gallery in Bahrain.

Recent group shows include “Miragens”, a touring exhibition at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Brasilia (2010-11) and "Zendegi: Twelve Contemporary Iranian Artists" (curated by Rose Issa Projects) at the Beirut Exhibition Center (2011).

Her work is in the public collection of the British Museum, London, and she is on the shortlist for the Jameel Prize 2011 exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, which will tour worldwide.