Abbas Akhavan to Represent Canada at La Biennale di Venezia 2026

Photo: Alex de Brabant

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Abbas Akhavan to represent Canada at the 61st International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia

OTTAWA, October 2024—The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) announced that Abbas Akhavan will represent Canada at the 61st International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia from April to November 2026. 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.

Jean-François Bélisle, Director & CEO of the National Gallery of Canada, commissioner of the Canada Pavilion in Venice, said: “The Biennale Arte is a vital forum where the world comes together and talks through art. The National Gallery of Canada is uniquely positioned to bring together artists, art institutions, and cultural organizations from across the country to celebrate Canadian talent on the global stage and facilitate connections in the art world. We are thrilled to announce that Abbas Akhavan has been nominated to represent Canada at the 61st International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia. 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.”

The artist was selected by a committee of experts in contemporary Canadian art comprised of Julie Crooks, Curator, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, Art Gallery of Ontario; Léuli Eshrāghi, Curator of Indigenous Practices, Montreal Museum of Fine Art; Crystal Mowry, Director of Programs, MacKenzie Art Gallery; Daina Warren, Executive Director, Indigenous Initiatives at Emily Carr University; Pan Wendt, Curator, Confederation Centre of the Arts; and committee chairperson Jean-François Bélisle, Director & CEO, National Gallery of Canada.

Born in Tehran and based between Montreal and Berlin, Abbas Akhavan’s multidisciplinary practice reflects on the relationships between place and history, attending to the geopolitical forces which define spaces. Recent solo exhibitions include Copenhagen Contemporary and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (2023); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2022); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2021); and The Power Plant, Toronto (2018). He was the recipient of the Sobey Art Award in 2015. In November 2026, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis will present a mid-career survey of Akhavan’s work.

The artist selection committee said: “The committee was drawn to the interdisciplinary practice of Abbas Akhavan, a meticulous artist and thinker for whom the site of an exhibition becomes both a proposal and provocation involving the staging of relations between materials, memory, and place. Whether invoking the ruins of ancient statues destroyed during geopolitical conflicts or exploring the stated idealism of gardens and other domesticated spaces, Akhavan’s sculptural environments set the natural world in uneasy balance with the valorization, exploitations, or indeed indifferences of contexts, systems, and projections all too human in origin. We look forward to seeing Akhavan turn his attention to the space and architecture of the Canada Pavilion within the historic Giardini della Biennale in Venice.”

The International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia is the largest and most prestigious contemporary art exhibition in the world with more than 80 participating countries. The Canada Pavilion is commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. It is presented in partnership with the National Gallery of Canada Foundation.

Visitors to the Biennale Arte 2024 can still view Kapwani Kiwanga: Trinket at the Canada Pavilion until November 24, 2024.

For more than 60 years, the Canada Pavilion, situated in the Giardini in Venice, has featured the work of the most celebrated Canadian artists. Canada’s representation in Venice has played a part in shaping the role and place of Canadian contemporary art within international circles, helping to launch or elevate the international careers of artists including Jean Paul Riopelle, Michael Snow, Geneviève Cadieux, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Rebecca Belmore, David Altmejd, Shary Boyle, BGL, Geoffrey Farmer, Isuma, Stan Douglas, and in 2024, Kapwani Kiwanga.

About Abbas Akhavan

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. Akhavan received an MFA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2006), and a BFA from Concordia University, Montréal (2004). He is the recipient of the Fellbach Triennial Award (2017); Sobey Art Award (2015); Abraaj Group Art Prize (2014); and the Berliner Kunstpreis (2012). Recent and upcoming 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); and The Power Plant, Toronto (2018), among others.

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