Critical Distance DIRECTORY Anahita Norouzi

Anahita Norouzi is a multidisciplinary artist, originally from Tehran and active in Montreal since 2017. For the past four years, she has been traveling between Iran and Canada to conduct her research which lies at the intersection of colonial histories, experiences of immigration and displacement, and the issue of identity and memory. Her practice is research-driven, instigated by marginalized histories and the legacies of botanical explorations and archeological excavations, particularly when scientific research became entangled in the colonial exploitation of non-Western geographies. Norouzi’s works have been shown internationally, most recently at BIENALESUR, the International Contemporary Art Biennial of South America, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has received numerous grants, fellowships, and awards, most notably the Grantham Foundation Award, Liz Crockford Artist Fund Award, and the Vermont Studio Center Merit. She is the winner of Impression residency at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2022 and the finalist for the Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize for pieces shown at the Royal College of Art’s Henry Moore Gallery in London and in Dubai.

Image: Anahita Norouzi, Arid Florilegium (detail), 2022, Inkjet prints on archival paper, paper cutouts, plexiglass, 16 x 20 in. Courtesy of the artist.