Shirin Neshat is arguably the most important contemporary artist from Iran.

She has exhibited all over the world and received international acclaim despite her difficult reception in the Muslim world. Most controversial but innovative about her oeuvre is the way she cleverly conceives the intricacies of inter-cultural dialogue.

As an Iranian-American, that is, from the privileged position of the border between East and West, she records the nuances of global transformation and flirts with the inevitable impermeability between the two worlds.

Neshat was born and raised in Iran. In 1983, she received her MFA in painting from the University of California, Berkeley.

When the Islamic Revolution broke Neshat was exiled from her native country. Returning after eleven years in 1990, she was confronted with an unrecognizable land: once secular and rather westernized, the nation's political landscape had radically transformed.