Born 1957, Qazvin, Iran

In 1974, at the age of seventeen, Shirin Neshat moved from Iran to the United States to study art at the University of California, Berkeley. She did not return to her homeland until 1990 - due to the 1979 revolution - and was profoundly affected by her visit, and the changes she noticed and experienced. It was at that time that Neshat resumed work as a practicing artist. She began creating photographs - many heightened with words in ink - and in the late 1990s started experimenting with video. In 1999, her video installation Turbulent won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale. She has since received a number of prizes, including the Grand Prix of the Kwangju Biennial, Korea, 2000, and the Visual Art Award of the Edinburgh Festival, 2000. Neshat's work has been exhibited worldwide in numerous solo and group exhibitions. She lives and works in New York.