Living and working in German exile since the 1990s, artist and activist Parastou Forouhar addresses themes such as the violation of human rights and the oppression of women through a powerful feminist language. Her work blurs the boundaries between form and concept, biography and artistic practice.
Using artistic strategies including installation, graphic print, and performative photography, Forouhar engages with the positionality of the female body and explores how diversity and ambivalence shape meaning and ownership of space in relation to gender, ethnicity, and migration.
Her work has been widely exhibited internationally and is included in major public and private collections, including the Queensland Art Museum, the British Museum, Belvedere, the Museum of Modern Art Frankfurt, the Deutsche Bank Art Collection, and the Walker Art Center.
Parastou Forouhar CV
Education
1990 Bachelor’s Degree, Fine Arts Studies, University of Tehran
1994 Advanced Studies at the Hochschule fuer Gestaltung, Offenbach, Germany
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Papillon, ADVOCARTSY Gallery, Los Angeles
2022–2023 Butterfly Preyed Upon!, Baden State Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany
One Step, Kunsthalle Goeppingen / Ute Pardhun Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany
2021 Limbo, Karin Sachs Gallery, Munich
2020 Parastou Forouhar, Kunstverein Ettlingen, Germany
Written Room, The Forecourt of Sinegria, Chur, Switzerland
2019 Deadlines, City Gallery Saarbruecken, Germany
Written Room, Werkbund, Frankfurt
2018 In the Sign of Ornament, Kunsthalle, Goeppingen, Germany
Before All Eyes, Epiphanias Church, Frankfurt
Written Room, Exhibition Hall of Kunsthochschule Mainz, Germany
2017 The Grass Is Green, the Sky Is Blue, and She Is Black, Museum Lindwurm, Stein am Rhein, Switzerland
Contested Memories, Anne Frank Educational Center, Frankfurt, Germany
Written Room, Pi Artworks, Istanbul, Turkey
Written Room, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium
2016 Written Room, Pi Artworks, London
2015 Reimagining the Illusion, Pi Artworks, London
The Burdened Paper, Hinterland Gallery, Vienna
New Works, Karin Sachs Gallery, Munich
2014 Body Letter, Taswir Projects (El Greco Year 2014), Toledo, Spain
Repeating Patterns of Mrs. P., Azad Art Gallery, Teheran
Kiss Me, Rose Issa Projects, London
2013 He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not II, Municipal Gallery Neunkirchen, Germany
Pain Has a Finer Tempo, Evangelische Akademie, Frankfurt
Ornament and Crime, Law Warschaw Gallery of Macalester College, St. Paul, USA
The Poetry of Unloved Perception, Kunst Galerie Fuerth, Germany
2012 No Home Game, Kunst-Raum-Akademie, Weingarten, Germany
2011 Written Room, Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy
2010 He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not, Verso Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
Parastou Forouhar, Leighton House Museum, London
Parastou Forouhar, RH Gallery, New York
2009 Parastou Forouhar, Karin Sachs Gallery, Munich
I Surrender, Azad Gallery, Teheran
Links of Violence, Orgel Fabrik, Karlsruhe, Germany
2008 Parade, Kunsthalle Vierseithof, Lueckenwalde, Germany
Body Letter, Eugen Gutmann House, Berlin
2007 Just A Minute, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome
2006 Blind Spot, Karin Sachs Gallery, Munich
2005 Parastou Forouhar, German Dome, Berlin
Fife and Drum Corps, Forum im Dominikanerkloster, Frankfurt
Fife and Drum Corps, Saarland Artists’ House, Saarbruecken, Germany
2004 Signs, Einstein Forum, Potsdam, Germany
Language of Ornament, City Museum in Spital, Crailsheim, Germany
2003 A Thousand and One Day, National Gallery in Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
2002 Take Off Your Shoes, Exhibition Space de Ligt, Frankfurt
Blind Spot, Exhibition Hall Schulstrasse 1A, Frankfurt
Blind Spot, Golestan Art Gallery, Teheran, Iran (banned)
2001 Blind Spot, Stavanger Culture House, Stavanger, Norway
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Portraiture Now: Iranian Contemporary, ADVOCARTSY Gallery, Los Angeles
2024 ART IRAN: Falling Into Language, Craft Contemporary Museum, Los Angeles
2023 Woman, Life, Freedom, Saarland Museum – Modern Gallery, Saarbruecken, Germany
Felix Nussbaum and Artistic Resistance Today, Felix Nussbaum Museum, Osnabrueck, Germany
The Assault of the Present on the Remaining Time: Artistic Testimonies of War and Repression, Bruecke Museum, Berlin
Iran: Deciphering Violence and Resistance, Urban Arts Space, Columbus, USA
Why Is There Art When There Are Wars?, Ernst Bloch Center, Ludwigshafen, Germany
2022 Protest! Shapes, Ulm Museum, Ulm, Germany
Decapitalize Humanity, Association of German Artists, Berlin
The Other Kabul; Remains of the Garden, Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland
Inspection; Pop and Politics in Contemporary Textile Art, Kunstmuseum Ravensburg, Germany
2021 Reflections: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa, British Museum, London
2020 Female Bodies, Palatine Museum Heidelberg, Germany
Body, Gazes, Power, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany
Walls, Stuttgart Art Museum, Germany
2019 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage, German Parliament, Berlin
2018 Image Power Religion, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany
Language Is the Only Homeland, Nest, The Hague, Holland
Waste Lands, Casa Arabe, Madrid, Spain
4th Mardin Biennale, Turkey
Line of Sight, MUDAC, Lausanne, Switzerland
2017 Open Letters: From Calligraphy to Street Art, Institute of Islamic Cultures, Paris
The True Stories Project – Art Works for Change, Patan Museum, Kathmandu
Disturbance, Kunsthalle der Sparkasse, Leipzig, Germany
Ostrale. 11th Biennial for Contemporary Art, Dresden, Germany
Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada / Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
Waste Lands, San Telmo Museoa, San Sebastian, Spain
The Art of Joy, MANIF D’ART/8 – The Québec City Biennial, Quebec, Canada
2016 Green Annoys, Marta Herford Museum, Herford, Germany
Restrictions of the Earth, Karsi Sanat, Istanbul
2015 Agoraphobia, Azad Art Gallery, Teheran
Magic and Power, Marta Herford Museum, Herford, Germany
Common Grounds, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich
2014 Ornamental Structures, Kunstverein Worms, Germany
Carte Blanche to Nil Yalter, Galerist, Istanbul
The Art of Life, Uppsala Konstmuseum, Uppsala, Sweden
Recalling the Future, Brunei Gallery–SOAS, London
2013 The Pattern That Connects, Kunsthalle Lingen, Germany
Longing for Persia, Museum Rietberg, Zurich
My Dear Swan, ACC Gallery Weimar, Germany
7th Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Gothenburg, Sweden
Conflicts, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel
Clear View, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Germany
The Fold, CAB Contemporary Art, Brussels
The 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
The 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow
2012 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
Fertile Crescent, Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey
Feminist and…, Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh
Omid Is My Name (Co-Curator), Anne Frank Educational Center, Frankfurt
The Elephant in the Dark, Devi Art Foundation, Delhi, India
Killing, Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany
2011 Medi(t)ation, 3rd Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung
Ornamental Structures, Stadtgalerie Saarbruecken, Germany
Political Patterns, ifa-Galerie, Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany
ZENDEGI, Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut
2010 Nagsh and Raghsh, Museum of Islamic Civilization, Sharjah
Veiled Memoirs, XIV Biennale Donna, Ferrara, Italy
War/Individual, Kunsthalle Münster, Germany
21st Century, Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
2009 The Power of Ornament, Belvedere, Vienna
Dream and Reality, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
In Istanbul – Between Arrival and Departure, BM Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul
Rebel, Museum for Modern Art, Arnhem, Holland
TASWIR, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin
Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale, South Korea
2008 Mahrem, Kunsthalle Vienna / Tanas, Berlin
2008 Re-Imagining Asia, House of the World Cultures, Berlin
Vote for Women, Kunst Meran, Merano, Italy
Naqsh, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
2007 Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum, New York
Retracing Territories, Kunsthalle Fribourg, Switzerland
Form – Design Media Art, Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt
Mahrem, Santral Istanbul, Istanbul
2006 Eastern Expressway, Evangelical City Academy Frankfurt
The Critical Eye, New Art Association Aschaffenburg
Hannah Arendt Thinkspace, Former Jewish Girls’ School, Berlin
2005 Intersections, Jewish Museum Melbourne / Jewish Museum San Francisco
2004 Gabriele Münter Prize, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin / Women’s Museum, Bonn
Distant Proximity, House of the World Cultures, Berlin
The Ten Commandments, German Hygiene Museum, Dresden
Time Zones / 3rd Triennial of Contemporary Art, Weingarten, Germany
4th Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea
2003 M_ARS – Art and War, New Gallery Graz, Austria
Feast / Hospitality, Århus, Denmark
Bellissima, Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
Zan-e-irani, Women’s Museum, Bonn
2002 The Source as Inspiration, Francke Foundation, Halle, Germany
2001 2nd Berlin Biennale, Berlin
Frankfurt Crossroads, Schirn Art Hall, Frankfurt
Change of Scene XIX, Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt
Moving Away, Women’s Museum, Bonn
