{{Short description|British artist and filmmaker (born 1964)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{More footnotes|date=November 2019}} '''Alia Syed''' (born 1964) is an experimental filmmaker and artist of Welsh-Indian descent.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alia Syed Artist {{!}} Biography, Past and Future Exhibitions {{!}} on artist-info |url=https://www.artist-info.com/users/artsitpublicpagewithportfolio/197794 |access-date=2022-12-04 |website=www.artist-info.com}}</ref>
==Biography== Born in Swansea, Wales, Syed earned her Bachelors in Fine Arts from the University of East London in 1987 and a Postgraduate degree in Mixed Media from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1992. She has taught and lectured at Central St. Martins and the Chelsea College of Art and Design, and she is now an associate lecturer at Southampton Solent University. Syed’s work has been screened and exhibited in museums, galleries, and festivals worldwide, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA),<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Poetry of Alia Syed's Eating Grass|url=https://unframed.lacma.org/2013/07/02/the-poetry-of-alia-syeds-eating-grass|website=LACMA|date=2 July 2013 |access-date=2023-07-05}}</ref> Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alia Syed|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/38604|website=Museum of Modern Art|access-date=2023-07-05}}</ref> Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alia Syed: Imagina tu propia historia|url=https://www.museoreinasofia.es/exposiciones/alia-syed-imagina-tu-propia-historia|access-date=2023-07-05}}</ref> Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) in London,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://iniva.org/library/digital-archive/people/s/syed-alia/|title=Alia Syed|website=Institute of International Visual Arts|access-date=2023-07-05}}</ref> and the Talwar Gallery, which has represented her for over a decade, in New York City and in New Delhi.<ref>[http://talwargallery.com/alia-bio/, "Alia Syed: Biography"], http://talwargallery.com/alia-bio/.</ref> Syed lives and works in London, UK.
Syed’s work focuses on issues of identity, representation, and language, often incorporating sound and text, in addition to images and characters, to explore and question structures of personal and collective narrative. Syed has said, “I am interested in language; we construct ourselves through language; it creates the space where we define ourselves. Film can be a mirror—it can throw things back at us in a way that makes us question the ideas we have about ourselves and through this each other…I [am] interested in what happens when you hold more than one ‘culture’ within you at any given time.”<ref>[http://lacma.wordpress.com/ Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), ''Eating Grass: Q & A with Filmmaker Alia Syed''], September 2012.</ref>
== Selected exhibitions ==
* 2019, Yale Center of British Art, ''Migrating Worlds: The Art of the Moving Image in Britain,'' New Haven, US (2019)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Migrating Worlds: The Art of the Moving Image in Britain, Yale Center for British Art|url=https://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions-programs/migrating-worlds-art-moving-image-britain|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref> * 2010, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), ''On Line'', curated by Connie Butler and Catherine de Zegher, New York, NY, US<ref>{{Cite web |title=On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/970?locale=en |access-date=2019-12-12 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}}</ref> * 2003, Tate Britain, ''A Century of Artists' Film in Britain'', London, UK<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/century-artists-film-britain|title=A Century of Artists' Film in Britain – Exhibition at Tate Britain|last=Tate|website=Tate|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref>
== Selected films ==
* 2019, ''Meta Incognita: Missive II'' * 2016, ''On a wing and a prayer'' (text by David Herd) * 2008–2011, ''Priya'' * 2006–2011, ''A Story Told'' * 2010, ''Wallpaper''
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://talwargallery.com/wp-content/themes/emptiness/alia-press/alia2015national.pdf The National], Eating Grass, Los Angeles, CA * [http://talwargallery.com/wp-content/themes/emptiness/alia-press/alia2015national.pdf "Glasgow artist Alia Syed shortlisted for £10,000 filmmaking prize," July 2015] * [http://talwargallery.com/wp-content/themes/emptiness/alia-press/jul13aap.pdf Art Asia Pacific, "Eating Grass," July 2013] * [http://galleristny.com/2013/03/alia-syed-panopticon-letters-missive-i-at-talwar-gallery/ New York Observer, ''Alia Syed: Panopticon Letters''], April 1, 2013. * [http://lacma.wordpress.com/ LACMA, ''Eating Grass: Q & A with Filmmaker Alia Syed''], September 2012. * [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/06/movies/art-in-review-alia-syed.html The New York Times, ''Alia Syed''], February 6, 2004.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Syed, Alia}} Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century Welsh women artists Category:21st-century Welsh women artists Category:British filmmakers Category:Artists from Swansea Category:Welsh people of Indian descent Category:Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Category:Alumni of the University of East London