Nairy Baghramian

Nairy Baghramian (born 1971) is an Iranian-born German visual artist, of Armenian ethnicity. Since 1984, she has lived and worked in Berlin. When the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum selected Baghramian as a finalist for the 2020 Hugo Boss Prize, they described Baghramian’s statues as: "...[Exploring] the workings of the body, gender, and public and private space."

Early life and education
Baghramian was born in 1971, in Isfahan, Imperial State of Iran (now Iran), the youngest child in an Armenian Iranian family. She and her mother flew to East Berlin in 1984, when she was 13, and later reunited in West Berlin with their family. She attended Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin).

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

Work
Baghramian captures fleeting human poses in traditional materials such as marble and steel. 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. Her work depicts abstract forms of bodies or body parts, often contemplating the brokenness or "prosthetic" relationship between the body and its environment. In the Guggenheim video, Baghramian explains that sometimes she builds on the idea of "looking at something and feeling pity for it." In addition, her work creates an interplay between the work itself and the spaces in which it exists.

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

In 2017, Baghramian's exhibition, Déformation Professionnelle was on display in the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst. This exhibition is the culmination of the artist's 18 sets of works from 1999 to 2016. Déformation Professionnelle exhibits the artist's oeuvre while alluding to existing works in her field. By using sculpture elements and photography in a site-responsive practice, she questions the traditional views towards the relationship between the human body's gestures and their functions.

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).

Recognition
In 2021, Baghramian received the 2022 Nasher Prize presented by the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. She was later a member of the juries that selected Senga Nengudi (2023) and Otobong Nkanga (2024) for the Nasher Prize.

Exhibitions

 * 2019: SOFT POWER, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, United States;
 * 2017: documenta 14, Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany;
 * 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

Awards

 * 2022 - Nasher Prize, Dallas Texas;
 * 2020 - Hugo Boss Prize;
 * 2016 – Zurich Art Prize, Zurich, Switzerland;
 * 2014 – Arnold-Bode Prize, Kassel, Germany;
 * 2012 – Hector Prize, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany;
 * 2007 – Ernst Schering Foundation Award

Personal life
Baghramian has been in a relationship with art dealer Michel Ziegler.