Golnesa Rezanezhad
°1982, Iran
lives and works in Ghent
Golnesa Rezanezhad is an Iranian visual artist and researcher based in Ghent. She works with various artistic mediums like drawing, painting, photography, and textile. She works through craft-work, mainly the one practiced by women, to look into women’s choices, everyday performances, and belongings.
In recent years she has conducted a research practice in northern Iran with female rug weavers. Since rug and carpet weaving in Iran has been the main export of the country for a long time, especially in the pre-oil economy, understanding the practice and imaginations around rug weavers is a way for her to challenge the many misrepresentations about them and their craft.
Her solo exhibition 'Weaving the past into the present', which Rezanezhad will present at the beginning of 2024, is part of an ongoing project and the results of her PhD-research that she presented in 2023.
This research-based artistic practice took place in two villages in northern Iran between 2016 and 2020. It reveals how female rug- and carpet-weavers imagine their womanhood through the tradition of weaving and how they express their imagination via rug motifs. The embodied practice of weaving is considered to be a form of being that relates to the past. But the findings of Rezanezhad's artistic research demonstrate how weaving has been reinvented in contemporary times as an artistic skill for reflecting artisans’ desired aesthetics and perceptions.
Rezanezhad considers her art practice a collaborative process. The basis of her work are two types of collaborations. One is collaborative design and weaving with artisans, based on reflecting their own everyday life stories by transforming traditional motifs. In another part of the collaboration, Rezanezhad let herself be inspired by the initial motifs that she finds woven by local artisans.
Golnesa Rezanezhad has presented her research and artistic practice in various international academic and art institutes including Iran, the USA, Belgium, the UK, Austria and Portugal, among other places.
Works
EXTENSIVE CV
Studies
2023 Ph.D. researcher at KASK/Royal Academy of Fine Arts and affiliated of Ghent University, Department of Culture and Gender. Ghent. Belgium.
2016 Graduated, Master of Autonomous Design, Royal College of Fine Arts/ KASK in Ghent, Belgium
2014 Graduated, Master of Fine Arts at Royal College of Fine Arts/ KASK in Ghent, Belgium
2007 Graduated, Bachelor of Visual Arts in Tehran University (IR)
Solo Exhibitions
2019 De Kriekelaar GC.(combined with workshop) Brussels. BE
2017 New River Studio. London. UK.
2017 Surmines kijkkamer. Ghent. BE
2010 Laleh Art Gallery. Tehran IR
2008 Laleh Art Gallery. Tehran. IR
Group Exhibitions
2023 10 Years, what a surprise!
2022 Touch-Line(s) #3, Eva Steynen.Deviation(s), Antwerp (BE)
2020 ‘Risquons Tout’. Wiels. Brussels. BE
2017 CC VERVERIJ. Ronse. BE
2016 Veriteg. Brussels. BE
2015 Salzburg Summer Academy. Salzburg. AT
2015 Blanco Galley. Gent. BE
2015 Tumult Festival. Tram Zwart. Gent. BE
2015 Master Factory. Tram Zwart. School of Arts, KASK. Gent. BE
2014 Graduated Show. School of Arts, KASK. Gent. BE
2013 Zwart Zaal. School of Arts, KASK. Curated by Cell Crabees. Gent. BE
2012 Sin Gallery. Tehran. IR
2011 Second Pressbook. Online Exhibition and Competition among Iranian Visual Artists. Curated by Neda Darzi
2010 Khatam Al Anbia Gallery. Guilan Painter Committee. Rasht. IR
2009 The Second Festival of Youth Iranian Artists. Saba Cultural Center.Tehran. IR
2008 Seventh National Biennale oh Contemporary Painting. Tehran Contemporary Arts Museum.Tehran. IR.
2007 Niavaran Cultural Complex. Tehran. IR
Publication:
2020 ‘’ Contemporary Artist Venture into Risk, Unpredictability and Transgression’’. Wiels. BE.
2020 A/R asbl (Organization for uniting the higher school of arts of the federation Wallonia – Brussels, with aiming to distribute artistic research). N3.
2017 “ The impasse of the artist: ethnographic research, potentials and constraints of participatory
work among female immigrants in Belgium and artisans in Northern Iran”. Ethnoarts’
book of abstracts. University Porto. ISBN: 978-989-99854-9-0
2016 Metropolis M, review of the artist's work.NL
2016 KASK magazine's cover. KASK.BE
2010 “The Structure of Color and Pattern in Gillan’s Hand-woven Crafts, Gilan Iran” Published
by:Art Academy of Iran. The Proceedings of the Conference on the Iranian Forgotten
Treasures. Vol(3). Hand-woven. ISBN: 978-964-232-073-8
Workshops and artist talks:
2021 ''Unfolding Season:think-thank discussion about history, the present, and the future of queer space and collectives''. Bebe Bookes. Ghent. BE
2020 ‘’ Decolonization of Practices’’. Artist talk. Organized by research group Intersection of Care. Wiels. Brussels. BE
2019 “It’s not a fiction”, a participatory art project with local and immigrants in the occasion of 30th anniversary of Sophia non-profit organization for gender studies. Brussels, BE
2016 “It’s not a fiction”, a participatory art project with local and immigrants in social artistic co-creation organization, Manoeuvre. Ghent. BE
Grants and awards:
2020 Erasmus Mundus exchange scholarship. Venice, Italy.
2019: UGent faculty grant for travel and accommodation, to attend in Art in Society conference. Lisbon, Portugal.
2018: U4 grant for participation in U4 summer school in Upsala . Sweden.
2015 Salzburg Summer Academy. Studio residence. Salzburg. Austria
2008 Seventh National Biennale of Iranian Contemporary Painting. As an significant artist. Tehran contemporary Arts Museum. Tehran. Iran