Nafir
Biography

Between the Street and the Loom

Nafir emerged from the graffiti scene in Tehran in the early 2010s, when painting in public space was — and remains — a political act. His early work was stencil-based, anonymously placed, and often removed within hours.

In 2018 he began working on Persian carpets as a deliberate provocation: the carpet is a symbol of domestic femininity, of women's invisible labour, of inherited culture. Painting portraits of women onto those surfaces inverted the silence embedded in the object.

"I am not decorating carpets. I am returning women to the surfaces they made."

Nafir's work has been exhibited in Tehran, Berlin, Amsterdam, and London. He currently splits his time between Iran and Europe.

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Selected Exhibitions

2024
Woman, Life, Freedom
Foam Museum, Amsterdam
2024
Borders of Silence
Tate Modern, London — Group
2023
The Carpet Speaks
Galerie Nord, Berlin — Solo
2022
Unnamed Faces
Tehran, Underground — Group
2021
Isfahan Street Interventions
Public Space, Isfahan

Press & Recognition

2024
Frieze Artist Award Nomination
Frieze Magazine
2023
"Graffiti as Testimony"
Artforum, Spring Issue
2023
Feature: Carpet as Canvas
Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin
2022
Voices from Iran
The Guardian, Long Read
2022
Art & Resistance Award
Human Rights Watch Film Festival
As Seen In
artforum
frieze
guardian
sz magazin
tate

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