Shezad Dawood (b. 1974, London, UK) studied at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art before completing a PhD at Leeds Metropolitan University. He is a Research Fellow in Experimental Media at the University of Westminster. Dawood lives and works in London.
Dawood is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, textiles, sculpture, film and digital media. Interweaving stories, realities and symbolism, he creates richly layered works that consider the relationships between ecology, architecture, history and lived experience. At the centre of his practice is an approach he describes as 'world-building', through which speculative and alternative futures become a means of examining the conditions of the present.
Working across disciplines and in dialogue with different communities, academics and specialists, Dawood develops expansive bodies of work that bring together multiple narratives and systems of knowledge. His projects frequently unfold over extended periods of time and across different media, exploring questions of environment, migration, memory, embodiment and the ways in which histories are constructed and retold.
Central to Dawood's method of working is his engagement with canvas as a place where many of the central concerns of his wider practice (ecology, architecture, hybridity, migration, speculative futures and cross-cultural histories) are condensed into a single pictorial field. Frequently working across vintage textiles, patterned fabrics and conventional canvas, he treats each as an active component of the image, allowing its existing histories, motifs and material associations to intersect with painted forms. Botanical imagery, geometric abstraction and architectural structures recur throughout his work, creating layered pictorial spaces in which distinctions between figure and structure, interior and exterior, and the natural and technological become unpredictable. Drawing on cyclical research interests ranging from modernist architecture and decorative traditions to ecology, migration histories and fiction, Dawood approaches painting as a form of world-building: a space in which disparate histories and systems of knowledge can coexist and generate new narratives.
Dawood has presented solo exhibitions and commissions internationally, including at the Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2026); Cultural Foundation, Abu Dhabi (2026); Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury (2023); Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2023); The Void, Derry (2023); WIELS, Brussels (2023); Qatar Museums, Doha (2022); Kai Art Center, Tallinn (2020); New Art Exchange, Nottingham (2020); Bluecoat, Liverpool (2019); MOCA Toronto (2019); Kunstverein München (2019); Rubin Museum of Art, New York (2018); Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice (2017); Pioneer Works, New York (2015); ICA, London (2015); Parasol Unit, London (2014); Leeds Art Gallery (2014); OCAT Xi'an (2014); and Modern Art Oxford (2012).
His work has been included in major international exhibitions and biennials including Manar Abu Dhabi (2023); Desert X AlUla (2022); Toronto Biennial of Art (2022); Sea Art Festival, Busan (2021); Folkestone Triennial (2021); Manifesta 13, Marseille (2020); Lahore Biennial (2020); Dhaka Art Summit (2020); Sharjah Biennial 14 (2019); Gwangju Biennale (2018); Taipei Biennial (2014); Marrakech Biennial (2014); Busan Biennale (2010); Tate Triennial (2009); and the Venice Biennale (2009). He has also exhibited at institutions including the Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art, New York; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; MACBA, Barcelona; WIELS, Brussels; Southbank Centre, London; and Witte de With, Rotterdam.
Dawood's work is held in international public and private collections including the Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi; Tate, London; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Seoul Museum of Art; National Gallery of Canada; The British Museum, London; Arts Council Collection; UK Government Art Collection; US Government Art Collection; Sharjah Art Foundation; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art; Rubin Museum of Art, New York; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; UBS; and Deutsche Bank.
Film has been a significant strand of Dawood's practice, with works screened internationally at institutions including the ICA, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Guggenheim Museum, New York, as well as at film festivals including CPH:DOX and Oberhausen. His feature film Piercing Brightness (2013) received an international theatrical release.