Working across site-specific ephemeral installations, drawing, video, sculpture, and performance, Akhavan critically engages with formal, material, and social legacies that shape the boundaries between public and private spaces.
Artworks
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, installation dimensions variable. Installation view, study for a garden, Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, UK, 2022. Photo: Keith Hunter. Courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver and The Third Line, Dubai
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, installation dimensions variable. Installation view, study for a garden, Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, UK, 2022. Photo: Keith Hunter. Courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver and The Third Line, Dubai
Abbas Akhavan, curtain call, variations on a folly, 2021/2023, barley straw, subsoil, lightweight leca, sharp sand, puddle clay, wood, chromakey green paint, pink noise, 154 x 256 x 484 in. (390 x 650 x 1230 cm). Installation view, curtain call, Copenhagen Contemporary, Denmark, 2023. Photo: David Stjernholm. Courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver and The Third Line, Dubai
Abbas Akhavan, curtain call, variations on a folly, 2021/2023, barley straw, subsoil, lightweight leca, sharp sand, puddle clay, wood, chromakey green paint, pink noise, 154 x 256 x 484 in. (390 x 650 x 1230 cm). Installation view, curtain call, Copenhagen Contemporary, Denmark, 2023. Photo: David Stjernholm. Courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver and The Third Line, Dubai
Abbas Akhavan, cast for a folly, 2019/2023, museum vitrines, benches, false doorway, digitally printed sharkstooth scrim fabric wall, green screen, mirrors, sconces, oscillating fan, chairs, plastic bucket, air conditioner, open cell foam cushions, moving blanket, clay bricks, pump, water lilies, dolly, straw, sand, plywood, mortar, dimensions variable. Installation view, curtain call, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2023. Photo: David Stjernholm. Courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver and The Third Line, Dubai
Abbas Akhavan, cast for a folly, 2019/2023, museum vitrines, benches, false doorway, digitally printed sharkstooth scrim fabric wall, green screen, mirrors, sconces, oscillating fan, chairs, plastic bucket, air conditioner, open cell foam cushions, moving blanket, clay bricks, pump, water lilies, dolly, straw, sand, plywood, mortar, dimensions variable. Installation view, curtain call, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2023. Photo: David Stjernholm. Courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver and The Third Line, Dubai
The
Artist
Abbas Akhavan, born in 1977 in Tehran, has been based in Canada for the last thirty years. He currently works and lives in Montréal and Berlin.
Upcoming and recent solo exhibitions include Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2026); Morris & Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (2025); Bangkok Kunsthalle, Bangkok (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); & 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 & Talk, São Miguel (2020); Toronto Biennale (2019); Liverpool Biennial (2018); SALT, Istanbul (2017); Prospect New Orleans (2017); Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017); & 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).
Photo: Alex de Brabant (2024)
The
Curator
Originally from Winnipeg, curator and writer Kim Nguyen is Director of Programs at the Ruth Foundation for the Arts in Milwaukee. Prior to Ruth Arts, she served as Curator and Head of Programs at the Wattis Institute and adjunct professor of fine arts at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and was Director/Curator of Artspeak in Vancouver. Nguyen has worked with a wide range of artists, including curatorial projects with Maia Cruz Palileo, Ken Lum, Lorraine O’Grady, Hồng-Ân Trương, and Akosua Adoma Owusu, among many others. In 2019, she curated Abbas Akhavan’s first solo presentation in the United States at the Wattis Institute, featuring the reconstructed lobby of the National Museum of Iraq. The installation was based on a photograph of the museum’s looting during the 2003 invasion of Baghdad. Most recently, she co-curated Ruth Arts’ inaugural exhibition, Benny Andrews: Trouble—the first major presentation of the late artist’s artwork and archives.
Deeply observational and intuitive, Abbas Akhavan's practice is one of resonances—of the knowledges and histories that reverberate today, of the precarity of life, of the tension between loyalty and deception. The contemplative nature of his work encourages us to think, to feel, to acknowledge what we do not know, but to consider caring for it anyway. It has been a gift to think alongside and support Akhavan's practice over the past two decades, and it is an honour to be collaborating with him on his presentation at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
Kim Nguyen, Curator
Photo: Azikiwe Mohammed
Abbas' work is shaped by the unique characteristics of the sites he works on, including the architectures, surrounding economies, and individuals who frequent them. We look forward to supporting him in bringing this vision to life at the Canada Pavilion.
– Jean-François Bélisle, Director and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada
Selection
Process
The artist was selected by experts in contemporary Canadian art comprised of:
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Julie Crooks, Curator, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
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Léuli Eshrāghi, Curator of Indigenous Practices, Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Montreal
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Crystal Mowry, Director of Programs, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina
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Daina Warren, Executive Director, Indigenous Initiatives at Emily Carr University, Vancouver
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Pan Wendt, Curator, Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown
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Chair
Jean-François Bélisle, Director and CEO National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Biennale Arte 2026
The International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia is the largest and most prestigious contemporary art exhibition in the world with more than 80 countries participating.
For more than 60 years, the Canada Pavilion, situated in the Giardini, has featured the work of the most accomplished Canadian artists, curated by the country’s most renowned curators.
Visiting Venice
The 61st International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia 2026 runs from Saturday, May 9 to Sunday, November 22, 2026.
Canada Pavilion
Giardini della Biennale
Sestiere Castello
30122 Venezia
Vaporetto: Giardini
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