About

Bahar Kamali is a lens-based artist working in photography, video and installation. With a practice grounded in their personal experience and informed by research, they have explored themes of memory and its relation to familial photography and the album, gender and queer phenomenology, and the diasporic experience. They hold a BFA in photography from Toronto Metropolitan University and a BA in Visual Studies and Architecture Studies from University of Toronto. They currently live and work in
Toronto.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

[2023] Banovan, The Image Centre (33 Gould Street)

[2020] At Once Here & There, Artspace TMU (former Ryerson Artspace)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

[2024] Si(gh)t[e] Lines, Production Gallery at Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography

[2023] Salon 44, G44 Centre for Contemporary Photography

[2022] Gender and The Lens III, Gales Gallery, York University, Toronto

[2020] Maximum Exposure Online Exhibition, Ryerson University, Toronto

[2019] Bread & Butter, Ryerson Artspace, Toronto

[2019] Maximum Exposure 24, Ryerson University School of Image Arts, Toronto

[2019] First Edition Photobook Show, Ryerson Artspace, Toronto

[2018] Brighton/Ryerson Exchange, Gallery 310, Ryerson University and Brighton, UK

[2018] Maximum Exposure 23, Ryerson University, School of Image Arts, Toronto

PUBLICATIONS

[Upcoming, 2025] Featured Interview at 2025 Capture Festival Catalogue

[2020] Function Magazine, Vol. 21

[2019] Function Magazine, Vol. 20

[2018] Playful Urban Drifts, Single Edition Artist Book

AWARDS

[2024] Best in Show Award, Salon 44 Annual Fundraising Exhibition

[2023] Feminist Photography Network Gibraltar Point Artist Residency

[2020] Ryerson Artspace, Best in Show, Maximum Exposure 4^th Year Award

[2019] Alliance Française / Contact Festival Exhibition, Shortlisted, IMA 4^th Year Thesis

[2019] Paul Semple Memorial Award, Ryerson University

[2019] John deBlois Memorial Award, Ryerson University

[2018] SF Award in Photography, Ryerson University

[2018] First Edition Photobook Award for Playful Urban Drifts, Ryerson University Special Collections

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

[2021 – Present] Installation Project Manager – CONTACT Photography Festival

[2024] Guest Artist Presenter, Youth in Focus, The Image Centre, Toronto Metropolitan University

[2022 & 2023] Guest Presenter, Toronto Metropolitan University, School of Image Arts

[2020] Imaging Technician, Accidental Wilderness: The Origins and Ecology of Toronto’s Tommy Thompson Park, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020

[2019-2021] Research Assistant & Print Technician, Robert Burley, School of Image Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University (aka Ryerson University)

[2018] Research Assistant, Peter Higdon Research Centre

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

[2020] B.F.A. Photography Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, CAN

[2011] B.A. Visual Studies + Architecture Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, CAN