Anita Memar is the professional name of Mahshid Memarzadehesfahan, is a multidisciplinary artist based in Manchester, United Kingdom, working across illustration, sculpture, ceramics, and mixed media.
Her practice is rooted in storytelling and explores how narratives can be translated into visual and tactile forms. Beginning with drawing and illustration, her work has gradually expanded into sculpture, ceramics, and mixed-media processes while maintaining a strong interest in narrative, character, and visual language.
Inspired by migration, memory, poetry, and emotional experience, Anita creates works that explore themes of identity, belonging, transformation, resilience, and wellbeing. Drawing on personal reflection and an ongoing engagement with poetry—including the writings of Rumi—her work combines symbolic imagery, material experimentation, and handcrafted forms to create spaces for reflection and connection.
Recurring motifs including female figures, fish, and organic structures reappear throughout her work, acting as visual carriers of memory, transformation, and belonging. Through an ongoing dialogue between image, object, and material, she develops works that move between two- and three-dimensional forms, inviting viewers to engage with personal and collective narratives.
Following the completion of her MA in Illustration at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, Anita’s practice has continued to evolve through an exploration of sculpture, ceramics, and mixed media, expanding the ways in which stories can be expressed through material, form, and making.
Education
MA Illustration, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK, 2023–2024
BA Fashion Design, University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran, 2011–2015
Graphic Design Diploma, Iran Conservatory of Art School, 2004–2007
Selected Exhibitions
The Stockport Open Exhibition, Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, Manchester – 2026
AWOL Studios × Comme Ca Art Open Call Exhibition, Manchester – 2026
MADE IT 2025: The North West's Graduate Art Prize, PINK, Stockport – 2025
Kind of Blue, HappeningInMCR & Black Creative Trailblazers, 45 Black Redstart Gallery, Manchester – 2025
HappeningInMCR Group Exhibition, Afflecks, Manchester – 2025
Didsbury Arts Festival, The Didsbury Parsonage Trust, Manchester – 2025
Fear Exhibition, SAAN1 Gallery, Manchester – 2025
Belonging is a Social Construct, CreativeSnow, Bolton – 2025
The scent of home, The Artisan Gallery, Thornton Le Dale, North Yorkshire – 2025
Anxiety and Society, Seesaw Gallery, Manchester – 2025
Make Your Mark Exhibition, Fruity Frenzy × West Art Collective, Manchester – 2024
Vertical Gallery Commissions, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester – 2024
MA Illustration Degree Show, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester – 2024
Aban Istanbul'da, Neta Art Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey – 2020
Solo Exhibitions
Spring/Summer Collection, Tehran, Iran – 2013
Art Fairs & Public Events
GO! Artists Oldham Art Fair, Oldham – 2025
The Big Manchester Potshop at PINK, Stockport – 2025
Pavilion Art Exhibition, Little Huyton – 2025
Flock and Gaggle Pop-Up, Quayside MediaCityUK, Salford – 2025
Makers Market, Quayside MediaCityUK, Salford – 2025
Publications
Woman–Life–Freedom, featured in The 101 Art Book: Floral Edition – 2024