Sitara Abuzar Ghaznawi (b. 1995, Afghanistan, lives and works in Zurich) works in mixed media and installations. Her work explores Western narratives of cultural homogenization and hierarchies, often employing mass produced materials such as aluminium foil, off-cuts or gaffer tape. She makes no attempt to disguise the utilitarian origin of the materials and often elevates them to the level of poetry with the juxtaposition of a rose – a recurrent motif in her work. The framing of her works in box-like structures seems to refer to codes of Western art, turned on their head by the modest nature of the materials.

Through complex cultural referencing and a minimalist approach to material, the artist challenges institutional codes and questions notions of taste.

Recent exhibitions of Sitara Abuzar Ghaznawi were presented at LC Queisser, Athens (two-person with Marina Xenofontos, 2022); Galerie Maria Bernheim, London (2021); LC Queisser, Tbilisi (solo, 2021); Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland (2020); Fri Art Kunsthalle Fribourg, Switzerland (2019); NEST, Zurich (2018) and among others.