Abbas Akhavan was born in Teheran in 1977, he lives and works in Toronto.

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Abbas Akhavan’s work is expressed in varying forms, and includes contextual and ephemeral installations, drawings, videos, sculpture or performance. His work is greatly influenced and responds to his particular working environment and surroundings: its architecture, the people who frequent it, and their local economy.

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Abbas Akhavan is particularly interested by the private sphere that he sees as a complex place, at once a symbol of hospitality and hostility.
This domestic space brings into focus the inherent emotional element and represents a source of investigation and questioning in his work. He uses the notion of “domestic space” as those surrounding and extending from the home as well: the garden, courtyards, terraces, and other not fully habitable spaces.

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At the Atelier Calder, Akhavan created a form of dialogue between the strong presence of the landscape at the Atelier, using and integrating its natural elements, and his work. The artist invited the viewer to consider the presence of his work in the Atelier, how they interacted and resonated with the surrounding environment.

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Abbas Akhavan was invited in residence at the Foundation Marcelino Botin with Mona Hatoum in Spain; to the Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse; Trinity Square Video; Western Front; the Fogo Islands and the Watermill Centre in Canada; and the Delfina Foundation, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and London.

He has had several solo exhibitions: Study for a Curtain, the Third Line, Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2015; Variations on a Garden, Mercer Union in Toronto, 2013; Study for a garden, Delfina Foundation, London, 2012.

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Abbas Akhavan is the laureate of Kunstpreis Berlin in 2012; Abraaj Capital Arts Prize in 2014; and the Sobey Art Award in 2015.

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