Haroon Mirza was born in 1977 in London, where he still lives and works. He has a BA in painting from Winchester School of Art, and MAs in critical practice and theory from Goldsmiths College, London, and in fine art from Chelsea College of Art and Design. While evolving an a disciplinary practice, he manipulates electricity, his primary medium to devise sculptures, performances, and immersive installations that ask us to reconsider the perceptual distinctions between noise, sound, and music.

He won the Silver Lion for most promising young artist at the 2011 Venice Biennale with The National Apavilion of Then and Now, a triangular anechoic chamber (a space with no echo) lined with sound-absorbing foam and fitted with LEDs that generated a noise which intensified as their light brightened. It is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Recent solo exhibitions of his work have been held at Lisson Gallery, London, UK (2023); Max Goelitz, Berlin, Germany (2022); CCA Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu, Japan (2020); John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, and Aberdeen Art Gallery, UK, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, and Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China (2019); Ikon, Birmingham, UK, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, and Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen (2018); Zabludowicz Collection, London, LiFE, Saint-Nazaire, France, and Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2017).  A selection of group shows and biennials include: Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2022), Lofoten International Art Festival, Lofoten, Norway (2022); 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2022); Lille Triennale, Lille, France (2021); the Liverpool Biennial and Look At Us Now, STUK Arts Center, Leuven, Belgium (2021); Lahore Biennale, Pakistan (2020); Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, China (2012); and the Venice Biennale (2011), where he was awarded the Silver Lion. Among other prizes, he won the COLLIDE International Award in 2017.