Ghazaleh Avarzamani (born in Tehran, Iran; lives and works between Toronto and London) is an artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation. She is interested in how institutional structures and educational methodologies shape psycho-social constructions of knowledge and uses her practice as a way to question dominant power structures. Her large-scale works typically involve interactivity, and she frequently makes art in and about public space, utilizing signs and symbols familiar from pop culture and everyday life. Board games, origami, children’s playground equipment, and sports are all recurrent in her practice as objects that demonstrate the norms, rules, and invisible structures that shape human relations within society. For Avarzamani, the creation of spaces that are both inviting and potentially hazardous is a way to explore how games and play can be understood as tools that deconstruct, replicate, or transform public space. By examining the laws, rules and systems that govern human behaviour, her work suggests different possibilities for disrupting hegemonic systems of power.
She trained at the Azad Art University, Tehran, and holds an MFA from Central Saint Martins, London. She has presented solo exhibitions at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, MOCA Toronto, Ab-Anbar Gallery, Tehran, and Light Gallery, London, and her work is held in collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario(AGO, Rockefeller Center, Arsenal Contemporary, MOCA Toronto, TD Art Collection and Red Mansion.
