Bita Ghezelayagh was born in Florence, Italy and lives in London. In 1984, she went to Paris to study architecture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris La Villette, where she received an MA. She returned to Tehran in 1994, to work in building restoration for the Association of Iranian Calligraphers in Tehran (“Anjomane Khoshnevissan”). Ghezelayagh was also the art director of three notable Iranian films, including “The Pear Tree” (“Derakhte Golabi”) by Dariush Mehrjui. In 2003 she started studying the historic craft of felt-making and had her first solo exhibition at the House of Artists (“Khane Honarmandan”) in Tehran in 2008. Her most recent solo show was at Asia House in London, in 2017. She has also had two solo exhibitions at Rose Issa Projects, “The Letter that never arrived” (2013), and “Felt Memories”, (2009) her first international solo show; she also had a UK touring solo exhibition, “Namad: A Persian Journey in Felt”, at The Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, the Quilt Museum, York; and Hawick Museum, Roxburgshire (2009-2010). Other solo show include Albahreh Gallery, Bahrain (2011), and “Silk and felt” at the Golestan Gallery, Tehran (2009). Her work has been exhibited in group shows at the Lajevardi Foundation in Tehran (2017) and the Shirin Gallery and Aaran Projects Gallery, both in Tehran, in 2016. Other group shows include the “Islamic Festival”, Sharjah Museum of Contemporary Art, UAE (2014); Caught in the Crossfire”, Herbert Art Gallery and Musuem, Coventry (2013); the Jameel Prize 2011 exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, touring to the Institute du Monde Arab, Paris (2011-12), the Casa Arabe, Madrid (2012), the Cantor Arts Centre, Stanford, (2012-13) and the San Antonio Museum of Art (2013); “Miragens”, a touring exhibition at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Brasilia (2010-11); “Zendegi: Twelve Contemporary Iranian Artists” (curated by Rose Issa Projects) at the Beirut Exhibition Centre (2011), “Four Contemporary Iranian Artists”, Al Bastskiya, Art Dubai (2010).
Her work is in the public collection of the British Museum, London, the Farjam Foundation, Dubai, and the Devi Art Foundation, Delhi.