Shirin Neshat

The Iranian artist and film-maker Shirin Neshat was born in 1957 and grew up in Qazvin, north-western Iran. She studied art at Berkley University in California but didn’t begin to make her own work until she returned to Iran in 1993. In 1995, a collection of her photographs entitled “Women of Allah” was exhibited in the Annina Nosei Gallery in New York; Cindy Sherman was the first person to buy a piece. Shirin’s other accolades include the Silver Lion for best director at the 66th Venice Film Festival and being named Artist of the Decade by The Huffington Post in 1999.