Shezad Dawood

Biography

Often collaborating with others across borders and communities, Shezad Dawood employs film, painting, neon, sculpture and virtual reality to deconstruct systems of image, language, site and narrative. Using the editing process as a method of exploring both meaning and form, he interweaves histories, realities and symbolism to create richly layered artworks.

Dawood’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York (2018); Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice (2017); Pioneer Works, New York (2015); ICA Studio, London (2015); Parasol unit, London (2014); Leeds Art Gallery, UK (2014); OCAT Xi’an, China (2014) and Modern Art Oxford, UK (2012). His work has also been shown in group exhibitions at Gwangju Biennale (2018); Drawing Room, London (2017); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2016); Taipei Biennial (2014); Marrakech Biennial (2014); MACBA, Barcelona (2014); Witte de With, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2013); Busan Biennale, South Korea (2010), Tate Britain, London (2009), and Venice Biennale (2009), among others.

His film works have been screened at Art Rotterdam (2018); New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery, Manchester, UK (2018); Screen City Biennial, Stavanger, Norway (2017); Pera Film | Pera Museum, Istanbul (2016); MoMA, New York (2015); Floating Cinema, London (2015); Nitehawk Cinema, Brooklyn, US (2015); Kurz/ Dust, CCA Warsaw (2015); Aspen Art Museum, US (2014); Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham, UK (2013) and London Sci-Fi Film Festival (2013), among others.

A Research Fellow in Experimental Media at the University of Westminster, Dawood trained at Central St Martin’s and the Royal College of Art in London before undertaking a PhD at Leeds Metropolitan University. He is a Jarman Award nominee (2012) and a recipient of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize (2011).

He was born in 1974 in London, where he continues to live and work.

SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennial 14
March Meeting 2012