Mahsa Aleph (b. 1990, Ardabil, Iran) received her BFA in Painting from the Tehran University of Art in 2013. Besides painting, she has been working with fabrics and clothing design since 2012. She has also been designing and executing installations for new urban displays since 2014. In most of her works, she opts for providing a “setting”; an approach that can be seen in all her other activities. In “Only the Writer Has Read the Book” (2013) Aleph endeavors to return language to its zero point, using a salt-cured book, impossible to read, interpret, or translate. “Aleph’s Library” (2017), “An Introduction to Aleph’s Library” (2017), and the present series, “The Aleph’s Archive” (2018), are all made in a similar vein, alluding to a kind of thought that is ready to sacrifice anything for the author’s imaginary intentions. Aleph lives and works in Berlin and Tehran.

Solo Exhibitions

  • 2019 | The Container Made of the Contained, Mohsen Gallery, Tehran-Iran
  • 2019 | The Aleph Archive, Mohsen Gallery, Tehran-Iran
  • 2018 | The Aleph’s Library, Mohsen Gallery, Tehran-Iran

Group Exhibitions

  • 2021 | What I Needed  Was Imagination , HBK, Braunschweig ,Germany
  • 2018 | Madar Basteh, Mah-e Mehr Gallery, Tehran-Iran
  • 2017 | The 7th Tehran National Sculpture Biennial, TMOCA (Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art), Tehran-Iran
  • 2017 | Vista Prize’17, Selected Group Exhibition, Vista Gallery, Tehran-Iran
  • 2015 | The Line, Matn-e Emrooz Gallery, Isfahan-Iran
  • 2013 | The 4th Annual Persbook Contemporary Art Festival, Iranian Artists’ Forum, Tehran-Iran
  • 2013 | The 7th Annual Montakhab-e Nasl-e No, Shirin Gallery, Tehran-Iran
  • 2013 | The Small Paintings Exhibition, Aria Gallery, Tehran-Iran
  • 2013 | The Second Exhibition of Iranian Generations of Painters, Laleh Art Gallery, Tehran-Iran

Awards

  • 2017 | The First Place Prize, The 7th Biennial of Sculpture, TMOCA (Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art), Tehran-Iran
  • 2016 | Vista statuette, Vista Contemporary Art Prize, Museum of the Qasr Prison, Tehran-Iran

Research Opportunities and Artist Residencies

  • 2022 | Berlin Fellowship, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
  • 2021 | Braunschweig scholarships , HBK Braunschweig, Germany