Born 1977 in Tehran (Iran), lives and works in Montreal (Canada).

The work of Abbas Akhavan ranges from site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing, video, sculpture and performance. The direction of his research has been deeply influenced by the specificity of the sites where he works: the architectures that house them, the economies that surround them, and the people that frequent them.

The artist presents a special kind of war memorial: Study for a Monument (2013-ongoing) is devoted to the species of vegetation that are native and endemic to the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates. This region, currently Iraq, has suffered considerably from social, political and ecological disturbances over the past decades. Sculpted in bronze after botanical photographs, enlarged flowers, stalks, leaves and roots are spread out across the floor, as opposed to the verticality of traditional monuments. Laid out on white sheets, like legal evidence, these bronze fragments evoke shards of shells, grenades or spears. The rich history of bronze in relation to weaponry, tools, monuments and memorials, is recalled here.

Abbas Akhavan is represented by the galleries Catriona Jeffries (Vancouver) and The Third Line (Dubai).