Abbas Akhavan

Born in Tehran, Abbas Akhavan currently lives and works in Toronto. His practice ranges from site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing, video and performance. For the past five years, the domestic sphere has been an ongoing research in Akhavan’s work. Much of the work explores the relationship between the house and nation state and how the trauma and systemic violence enacted upon civilians can be inherited and re-enacted with the family lineage – the home becomes a forked space between hospitality and hostility. More recent works have shifted focus onto spaces just outside the home – the garden, the backyard, and other domesticated landscapes.
Akhavan’s work has been exhibited in galleries such as the Vancouver Art Gallery, Artspeak, Trinity Square Video (Canada), Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, (Denmark), Le Printemps de septembre a Toulouse, (France), Botkryka Konsthall, (Sweden), and Third Line (Dubai, UAE). Recent residencies include Fundatcion Marcelino Botin with Mona Hatoum, (Spain), Axeno7, Video IN (Canada), and the Delfina foundation residency (Dubai). Currently Akhavan is preparing for a group show at Belvedere Museum (Austria), with upcoming solo exhibitions at Araan Gallery, (Iran), Artspeak, Modern Fuel, Peel Art Gallery, and The Darlin Foundry, (Canada). Abbas Akhavan is represented by the Third Line & Artist Pension Trust, Dubai, UAE.