ABBAS AKHAVAN

b. 1977, Iran

About

Abbas Akhavan's (b. Tehran, Iran; lives/works: Montreal and Berlin) practice ranges across site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing, video, sculpture, and performance. The direction of his research has been deeply influenced by the specificity of the sites in which he works, including the architectures that house them, the economies that surround them, and the individuals that frequent them. The concept of the garden—and by extension, the spaces and species just outside the home, such as the backyard, public parks, and other domesticated landscapes—have been foundational components in his work.

In recent large-scale installations, Akhavan recreates cultural sites affected by international conflicts, attending to the multivalent ways in which ongoing geopolitics fight for control of historical narratives. Through his work, Akhavan engages with formal, material, and social legacies that shape the boundaries between public and private, domesticated and wild, hostile and hospitable.

Upcoming and recent solo exhibitions include La Biennale di Venezia (2026); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2026); Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (2025); Bangkok Kunsthalle (2025); Copenhagen Contemporary and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (2023); Mount Stuart House, Isle of Bute (2022); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2022); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2021); CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2019); Fogo Island Arts (2019); The Power Plant, Toronto (2018); Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (2017); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2017); Mercer Union; Toronto (2015); and the Delfina Foundation, London (2012). Recent group exhibitions include the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2024); 14th Gwangju Biennale (2023); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022); Protocinema, Istanbul (2021), Walk and Talk, São Miguel (2020); Toronto Biennale (2019); Liverpool Biennial (2018); SALT, Istanbul (2017); Prospect New Orleans (2017); Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017); and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016).

Akhavan received an MFA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2006), and a BFA from Concordia University, Montréal (2004). Recent residencies include Fogo Island Arts, Fogo Island, Canada (2019, 2016, 2013); Atelier Calder, Saché, France (2017); and Flora ars+natura, Bogotá, Colombia (2015). He is the recipient of the Fellbach Triennial Award (2017); Sobey Art Award (2015); Abraaj Group Art Prize (2014); and the Berliner Kunstpreis (2012).

Text courtesy Catriona Jeffries

Abbas Akhavan, variations on a folly (2022). Scaffold, plywood, pond liner, aggregate, clay, garden silt, soil, rocks, water, pond pump and tubing, plants sourced from the gardens, hardware, full spectrum lights. Dimensions variable. Exhibition view: study for a garden, Mount Stuart House, Isle of Bute, U.K. (30 April–2 October 2022). Photo: Keith Hunte.
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Left to right: Abbas Akhavan, spring (2021). Sculpture, frost, copper piping, freezing mechanism, cinder blocks, found water fountain, lights and pump. Part 1: 3.75 metres. Diameter x 45 cm, part 2: 160 x 160 x 80 cm (freezing mechanism). Courtesy the artist, Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver and The Third Line, Dubai; Ceal Floyer, Overgrowth (2004). Medium format slide and medium format slide projector. Dimensions variable. Courtesy Lisson Gallery; Esther Schipper Gallery, Berlin, 303 Gallery, New York; Galleria Massimo Minini, Berscia. Exhibition view: Once Upon A Time Inconceivable, Protocinema, Istanbul (4 September–10 October 2021). Photo: Zeynep Fırat.
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Abbas Akhavan in Ocula Magazine

News Which Artists Are Showing at Venice Biennale 2026? Ada Leung The 61st Venice Biennale is set to open in April 2026. These are the artists and curators representing their countries in national pavilions.

News Abbas Akhavan to Represent Canada at 2026 Venice Biennale Elaine YJ Zheng The Montreal‑based artist, known for his exploration of geopolitical influences on places, will be representing Canada at the upcoming Venice Biennale.

Photolog 14th Gwangju Biennale: In Photos Titled soft and weak like water, the 14 th Gwangju Biennale features 79 artists from around the world. This year, the Biennale seeks to connect Gwangju and the world through a planetary vision, and shed light on transnational narratives which bridge the individual and the universal.

News Gwangju Biennale 2023 Gets ‘Soft and Weak Like Water’ Michael Irwin Participating artists have been announced for an exhibition that dives into metaphors for solidarity and transformation.

Conversation | Collaboration Laura Raicovich on Art and Museums in an Age of Protest Mari Spirito Laura Raicovich joins Protocinema founder Mari Spirito to discuss museums in an age of political upheaval.

News Protocinema, Mari Spirito’s Art Space Without a Space, Turns 10 Sam Gaskin Spirito sees similarities between the milestone and the pandemic. Both are a chance to reflect on how art is made and shown.

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