Shahryar Nashat makes sculptures, videos, and other works in which the human body and its representations play a central role. However, this is not merely a matter of visual analysis. Rather, Nashat gets at the very experience of what it means to be a body at a moment when the technologies that filter experience encourage fragmentation and distance. Desire, mortality, fragility, and resilience are among the thematic concerns his work addresses. Nashat pays special attention to framing and pedestals, treating them as integral parts of his work. He also often alters a gallery’s architecture and lighting, allowing his exhibitions to function as fully embodied meditations on art’s ability to reflect the current state of human life. Their prescience and mystery also make them function as windows into an uncertain future.

Shahryar Nashat has been the subject of solo presentations at institutions including Istituto Svizzero, Rome (2024–2025); MASI Lugano, Switzerland (2024); Art Institute of Chicago (2023); Renaissance Society, Chicago (2023); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2020); SMK—Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark (2019); Swiss Institute, New York (2019); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2017); Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany (2016); Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2016); Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2015); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014); Kunstverein Nürnberg, Germany (2010); and Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Switzerland (2009). Recent group exhibitions include Ecstatic: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2023); Swiss Sculpture Since 1945, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2021); Honestly Speaking: The Word, the Body and the Internet, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand (2020); Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); 20th Biennale of Sydney (2016); Le Grand Balcon, La Biennale de Montréal, Canada (2016); 8th Berlin Biennale (2014); and ILLUMInations, 54th Venice Biennale, Italy (2011). His work is in the permanent collections of institutions including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland; Art Institute of Chicago; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.