Batool Showghi MSDC

Batool Moazzen-Showghi was born in Iran and moved to England in 1985. She received a merit for her MA in Design & Media Arts from the University of Westminster in 1997 just after finishing her BA honours from the London Guildhall University. In 2001 she received a Certificate of Education from the University of Westminster. While continuing her art practice, she taught at Harrow College from 1998 until 2015 as a part time lecturer. Since then she has dedicated her time to her art and exhibiting her work in both solo and group exhibitions in England and abroad.

She frequently returns to Iran to draw inspiration and source new material. Her vocabulary is diverse and she transforms documents, calligraphy, portraits, patterns and everyday objects into beautiful and densely layered pieces. She works with photographs, digital manipulation, fabric, stitching, paint and paper to produce her unique and individual images and pieces in a process that has become a ritualised activity.

Showghi’s artwork is concerned with her cultural heritage, memory, identity and loss. She wants to examine the physical limits that women can experience with regard to cultural and religious boundaries.

Showghi's work has been exhibited since 1988 in the UK and abroad. She has shown in London at: the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, The Mall Galleries, the Phoenix Art Gallery in Brighton, Harrow Open Studios, The Asia House Fair, London Art Book Fairs and at the Stock By Nayland Festival. She has also exhibited in museums, galleries and universities and most recently in Tehran at the Golestan Palace Museum and at the International Contemporary Art Fair Artrooms at The Melia White House Hotel.

Showghi's work can be found in public and private collections, e.g. The Tate Britain (has now six artist's books in their collection), The British Library, The Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth (five books for the ‘New Found Treasures’ exhibition), the Museum of Art and Literature, Yerevan, Armenia, Middlesex University, Thames Valley and Canterbury University, the Aaran Gallery in Tehran, and in many private collections.