Born in Shiraz, Iran in 1955, Shirazeh Houshiary began to study Visual Art after arriving in the UK in 1973. She attended at the Chelsea School of Art and at Cardiff College of Art in Wales, where she was a junior fellow. She now lives and works in London. Shiraz works in sculpture, painting, drawing and animation and works in a variety of different materials, such as copper, zinc, steel, brass, tin, mud and straw. Her work often originates from her paintings and is then transformed into a different medium, therefore interpreting the same concept in a variety of ways. Houshiary is best known for her sculptures, which make use of abstract forms. Her work focuses on the aspects of the material in use, frequently referencing to the four elements that constitute the universal significance of her work. Houshiary was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1994 and institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Tate Collection in London collect her work. Her work is also being incorporated into public site-specific spaces, such as the Battery Park, New York and Midtown Tokyo.