Nairy Baghramian

Nairy Baghramian (born 1971) is an Iranian-born German visual artist of Armenian ethnicity.^[1] Since 1984, she has lived and worked in Berlin.^[1][2] Using an extensive repertoire of techniques, materials, and forms, Baghramian’s site-responsive sculptures and installations explore the relationship between architecture, objects, and the human figure.

When the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum selected Baghramian as a finalist for the 2020 Hugo Boss Prize, they described Baghramian’s practice as: "...[Exploring] the workings of the body, gender, and public and private space."^[3]

Baghramian was born in 1971, in Isfahan, Iran,^[1] the youngest child in an Armenian Iranian family.^[4] She and her mother flew to East Berlin in 1984, when she was 13,^[4] and later reunited in West Berlin with their family.^[1][5] She attended Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin).^[5][6]

In addition to her artistic practice, Baghramian worked at the women’s shelter that her sister Louise co-founded.^[4]

Baghramian creates sculptural installations that reimagine the workings of the body and its connection to the spaces it inhabits. ^[7] Inspired by dance classes she took as a child, Baghramian recalls her teacher speaking of the need to break down human movement into discrete elements.^[3][8] Her work depicts abstract forms of bodies or body parts, often contemplating the brokenness or "prosthetic" relationship between the body and its environment.^[9][10] Through a wide range of materials and techniques, Baghramian challenges traditional sculptural conventions, creating works that defy definitions and reveal new perspectives. ^[11] A process of listening to and questioning materials is critical to her practice. “I have a very classical way of working, a traditional way of thinking of materials,” she says. “To get the sense of the politics of the material and the shapes, I have to understand it.” ^[12]

For the Berlin Biennial, she collaborated with ninety-eight-year-old designer Janette Laverrière to create a set for her furniture design.^[13][14]

In 2017, Baghramian's exhibition, Déformation Professionnelle, was on display in the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst.^[15] This exhibition is the culmination of the artist's 18 sets of works from 1999 to 2016.^[15] Déformation Professionnelle exhibits the artist's oeuvre while alluding to existing works in her field. Through a site-responsive approach that incorporates sculptural elements and photography, she challenges conventional perspectives on the connection between human body gestures and their functions.^[16]

In 2019, Baghramian took part in Performa 19 , collaborating with the artist Maria Hassabi. Inspired by the portraits taken by Carlo Mollino in the 1960s, they created Entre Deux Actes (Ménage à Quatre).^[17]

Between 2020 and 2021, Baghramian’s work was displayed in Ground/work at the Clark Art Institute. Creating Knee and Elbow, Baghramian was inspired movement in the body. ^[18]

In 2021, Baghramian received the 2022 Nasher Prize presented by the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.^[19] She was later a member of the jury that selected Senga Nengudi (2023)^[20] and Otobong Nkanga (2024)^[21] for the Nasher Prize.

• 2024: Nairy Baghramian: Jumbled Alphabet, South London Gallery, London, United Kingdom ^[22]
• 2023: The Façade Commission: Scratching the Back, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States ^[23]
• 2023: Nairy Baghramian: Jupon de Corps, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, United States ^[24]
• 2022: Nairy Baghramian: Modèle vivant, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, United States ^[25]
• 2019: SOFT POWER, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, United States;^[26]
• 2017: documenta 14, Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany;^[27]
• 2017: Déformation Professionelle, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria;
• 2016: S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium;
• 2015: Nairy Baghramian: Hand Me Down, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico;
• 2014: Sonae/Serralves Project 2014: Nairy Baghramian, Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal;
• 2014: Nairy Baghramian: French Curve/Slip of the Tongue, Bluhm Family Terrace, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States;
• 2014: Nairy Baghramian: Off the Rack, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany;
• 2013: Retainer, Sculpture Center, Long Island City, New York, United States;
• 2013: Nairy Baghramian: Fluffing the Pillows (Moorings, gurneys, Silos, Mops, News Rack, Railing), MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, United States;
• 2012: Nairy Baghramian: Class Reunion, The Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada;
• 2012: Fluffing the Pillows, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

• 2025 – Art Basel Award, Basel, Switzerland
• 2023 – Nivola Award for Sculpture, Museo Nivola, Orani, Italy
• 2023 – Aspen Award for Art, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado
• 2022 – Nasher Prize, Dallas Texas;^[19]
• 2020 – Hugo Boss Prize (finalist);^[28]
• 2019 – Malcolm McLaren Award, Performa 19, New York, NY^[29]
• 2016 – Zurich Art Prize, Zurich, Switzerland;^[30]
• 2014 – Arnold-Bode Prize, Kassel, Germany;
• 2012 – Hector Prize, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany;
• 2007 – Ernst Schering Foundation Award

Baghramian has been in a relationship with art dealer Michel Ziegler.^[4]

• Kostas Prapoglu (20 September 2016). "Nairy Baghramian". The Seen.
• Kevin McGarry (28 January 2013). "Nairy Baghramian at Sculpture Center". T Magazine.