Shoja Azari


Shoja Azari is an Iranian-born visual artist and filmmaker based in New York City. He is known for films such as Women Without Men, Windows, and K, based on 3 of Franz Kafka's short stories.

Biography

Azari was born in Shiraz, Iran. He is ethnically Persian, despite the last name. Azari trained as a filmmaker in New York in the 1970s before returning to Iran during the Iranian Revolution in 1979. He then permanently returned to the U.S. In 1997, he first met artist Shirin Neshat when she was assembling a team to create her first video, “Turbulent”. Azari and Neshat became artistic and romantic partners.
Azari's film and multimedia installations have been increasingly showcased in galleries and museums around the world. His first solo exhibition in New York occurred in 2010 at the Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery.
He is divorced and has one son, Johnny B. Azari, a musician.