Abbas Akhavan is a Montreal-based visual artist. His recent work consists of site-specific installations, sculpture, video, and performance, consistently in response to the environment in which the work is created. Akhavan was born in Tehran, Iran in 1977. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

in 2004 and his Master of Fine Arts from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

in 2006. Akhavan's family immigrated to Canada from Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. His work has gained international acclaim, exhibiting in museums, galleries and biennales all over North America, Europe and the Middle East. He is the recipient of the

Kunstpreis Berlin The ''Berliner Kunstpreis'' (Berlin Art Prize), officially Großer Berliner Kunstpreis, is a prize for the arts by the City of Berlin. It was first awarded in 1948 in several fields of art. Since 1971, it has been awarded by the Academy of Arts ( ...

(2012), the Abraaj Group Art Prize (2014), and the

Sobey Art Award The Sobey Art Award is Canada's largest prize for young Canadian artists. It is named after Canadian businessperson and art collector Frank H. Sobey, who established The Sobey Art Foundation. It is an annual prize given to an artist 40 and under wh ...

(2015).

Career

Domestic spaces, as negotiated between hospitality and hostility, have been an ongoing area of research in Akhavan's practice. His works are created in direct response to the situation he finds himself working in, whether that might be a specific structure, institution, geographic region, or community. His recent work has moved past the confines of home to the surrounding areas, including an examination of domesticated landscapes. Akhavan has exhibited work at the Western Front in Vancouver, the Delfina Foundation in London, the

Bergen Museum The University Museum of Bergen ( no, Universitetsmuseet i Bergen) is a university museum in Bergen, Norway. The museum features material related to anthropology, archaeology, botany, geology, zoology, art, and cultural history. History The Univ ...

in Norway, and ABC Art Berlin Contemporary. Kathleen Ritter writes about his site-specific audio project ''Landscape: for the birds'' at the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...

in 2009: "an extension of Akhavan's previous projects, where he has, for example, places a pile of shoes at the foot of a gallery's door, hung a white sheet from a gallery's window, planted a live wall of hedges inside gallery and blocked off a gallery's entrance with a wall of sandbags resembling a military blockade. The installations reinterpret the gallery entrance as a site of special significance , drawing attention to the threshold between expected and unexpected sites of cultural activity.". "Akhavan's art is a thoughtful, and at times mournful, interrogation of our habits of perception, underscoring the provisional nature of our understanding of the world around us."

Awards and honours

Akhavan was awarded the Kunstpreis Berlin in 2012 and the Abraaj Group Art Prize in 2014. In 2015, Akhavan won the $50,000

, given to an artist under 40 whose work has been displayed in a public or commercial art gallery. The Sobey Art Award's six-member curatorial panel said in a statement that they "wanted to underline the generosity and empathy at play in Abbas's work", and that "through a fugitive practice that resists fixed meaning, Akhavan reasserts that power and engagement are always relevant subjects for examination."

Residencies

* Foundation Marcelino Botin with

Mona Hatoum Mona Hatoum ( ar, منى حاطوم; born 1952) is a British-Palestinian multimedia and installation artist who lives in London. Biography Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon, to Palestinian parents. Although born in Lebanon, Hatoum ...

(Spain), * Le Printemps de Septembre (France) * Trinity Square Video (Canada) * Western Front, and Fogo Islands (Canada) * The Watermill Center (USA) * The Delfina Foundation (Dubai, UAE & London, UK)

Exhibitions

* ''Variations on a Garden,''

Mercer Union Mercer Union is a Canadian artist-run centre in Toronto, Ontario, established in 1979 to exhibit contemporary art. History Mercer Union was founded in 1979 by artists Michael Balfe, Peter Blendell, Ric Evans, Peter Hill, Jamie Lyons, David MacW ...

, Toronto (2015) * ''Burning down the house,''

Gwangju Biennale The Gwangju Biennale is a contemporary art biennale founded in September 1995 in Gwangju, South Jeolla province, South Korea. The Gwangju Biennale is hosted by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation and the city of Gwangju. The Gwangju Biennale Founda ...

, Gwangju (2014) * ''Variations on a Garden'', Galerie Mana, Istanbul (2013) * ''Study for a Glasshouse'',

Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives The Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (PAMA) is a museum, art gallery, and archives for the Regional Municipality of Peel and are located in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Previously, it was the Peel Heritage Complex. Its facilities were originally ...

(2013) * ''Turkey Green House'', Western Front, Vancouver * ''Study for a Garden'', Delfina Foundation, London (2012) * ''Material Information'',

, Bergen, Norway * ''Tactics for Here & Now'',

Bucharest Biennale The Bucharest Biennale (full name: ''Bucharest International Biennial for Contemporary Art'') is a contemporary art biennale held in Bucharest, Romania. History The first edition of the Bucharest Biennale was held in 2005, with the following one ...

, Bucharest (2012) * ''Tools for Conviviality'',

Power Plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

, Toronto (2012) * ''Beacon'', Darling Foundry, Montreal (2012) * ''Phantomhead'', Performa 11, New York (2011) * ''Seeing is Believing'', KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2011). * ''About painting'', ABC Art Berlin Contemporary, Berlin (2011).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akhavan, Abbas Canadian installation artists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian sculptors Canadian video artists Canadian performance artists Artists from Toronto