Zahra Zavareh, a visual artist from Tehran (Iran), currently based in Stockholm, unravels the body’s presence through sculpture, video, and installation. She explores the tension between physicality and psychological states, often working with forms that evoke both intimacy and estrangement. Her practice challenges the passive role of the viewer, dissolving boundaries between the observer, the artwork, and its environment.

Drawing from personal experience and theoretical influences, Zavareh engages with dichotomies like human and nonhuman, power and resistance, action and interaction, often interwoven with elements of irony. Her work is informed by Foucault’s examination of power dynamics, Hans Bellmer’s exploration of fragmented bodies, and the Situationists’ strategies of disruption.

Breaking away from conventional linear narratives, Zavareh became interested in Expanded Cinema, creating spatial and durational experiences that shift between presence and absence. She draws on the Absurd as both a philosophical stance and a structural method, embracing disjunction, failure, and unresolved tensions. She constantly explores the language and potential of different materials, pushing their boundaries to create forms that are both rigid and fluid. She embraces process-driven experimentation, allowing material traces—such as mold leaks, hammer marks, and residual drips—to become integral to the work.

She has participated in residencies, exhibited internationally in galleries, museums, and artist-run spaces, and is an active member of Detroit Stockholm, where she collaborates on curatorial projects and exhibitions.. Since 2007, after graduating with a BSc in Physics, her work has been seen in venues such as The 5th Tehran Sculpture Biennial in Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (2007), Three Generations of Iranian Sculptors(2010), Art habens art review (2015). Video instalments have been shown in Limited Access Four and five(festival for video) (2013-2014) and Stockholm Fringe Festival (2017), Manifesto: A moderate Proposal (2018), Supermarket Art Fair (2019), Stockholm Art Week(2019), Persian Heritage for the World show in Cambridge (2019), SKF/Konstnärshuset Eldhunden (2020), Galway International Art Festival (2022).…

 Joined Detroit Stockholm in 2018

Member of Konstnärshuset

Studied Narrative Design in Stockholm University Of The Arts

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