Shahpour Pouyan, After, "Rustam rescues Bijan from the pit", 2019, Mixed media on German cotton paper, 32.5 x 20.5 cm
Shahpour Pouyan, Authentic, 2018, mixed media, dimensions variable
Shahpour Pouyan, Damavand, 2018, oil on canvas and wood stretcher, 4 x 53 x 178cm
Shahpour Pouyan, When The Pigs Fly, Yinchuan Biennale, 2017. Installation view, final chapter of the installation. Loading 100 clay pigs on the convey belt.
Shahpour Pouyan, (Wales), 2017
Glazed stoneware ceramic, 27 x 24 cm
Shahpour Pouyan, Five works from the Projectiles Series. Installation view, Fort Winfield Scott Military Chapel, San Francisco, 2016.
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Shahpour Pouyan (b.1979 Isfahan) explores expressions of power, domination and possession through the force of culture using sculpture and installation. He is based between New York and Tehran.
While his work refers naturally to his homeland in part, it is distinctly global and conceptual in outlook. Frequently drawing together references from across the globe in a single work, he explores the role of culture in supporting power. From architecture to munitions to armour, his early work is bound together by explorations of the unique properties and uses of the dome. More recent performance, video, sculpture and installation draws variously on theology, propaganda, global calendars, bombing, archaeology and war time rescue efforts, from France to Vietnam, from Baghdad to New York. Pouyan is the recipient of the 2020-2022 Kenneth Armitage Foundation Fellowship, London. His solo exhibitions include Skyhigh is my place, Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium (21/22); After examining the logbook, the doctors assume they are dealing with the plaque, Gallery Obedia, Paris (2020); Wūshuǐ, Copperfield, London (2018); The Incarnation of the Body Politic, The Armory Show, New York City (2018); My Place is the Placeless, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, UAE (2017); We Owe This Considerable Land to The Horizon Line, Nathalie Obadiah Gallery, Paris (2017); History Travels at Different Speeds, Copperfield, London (2015); PTSD, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2014); Full Metal Jacket, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2011); The Hooves, Sixty Six Art Gallery, Tehran (2010); Bana Bar In, Nar Gallery, Tehran (2009); XVA Gallery, Dubai (2009) and Towers, Ave Gallery, Tehran (2008). Group exhibitions include Rebel, jester, mystic, poet: contemporary Persians, Asia Society Museum, NY (2021); Contemporary Ceramic Art from the Middle East, curated by Mariam Rosser-Owen, V&A, London (2021); Miniature 2.0 - Miniature in Contemporary Art, Pera Museum, Istanbul (2020); Prelude, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Ghent, Belgium (2020); Clapping with Stones curated by Sara Raza, Rubing Museum, New York (2020); Diplomacy curated by Owen Duffy, Yeh Art Gallery, Queens, New York (2019); The Moon: A voyage through time, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, (2019); Punk Orientalism, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada (2018); White Anxieties, WhiteBox, New York City (2018); Only the Morning Bird Treasures the Flower Garden, REDCAT, Los Angeles (2018); In the Field of Empty Days: the intersection of past and present in Iranian art, LACMA, Los Angeles (2018); The New Minimalists, Abrons Art Center, New York (2018); Art Dubai Contemporary, with Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2018); Focus, The Armory Show, with Jameel Shabibi, New York (2018); Past meets Present, Anna Laudel Contemporay, Istanbul (2017); Jameel Prize 4 Inspiration from Islamic Tradition, Asia Culture Center, Korea (2017); 7th Beijing Biennale, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (2017); Iranian Voice, British Museum, London (2017); Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2017); Insights, Art Basel Hong Kong, with Lawrie Shabibi, Hong Kong (2017); Iranian Voices, Recent Acquisitions of Works on Paper, British Museum, London (2017); Home Land Security, Fort Winfield Scott, San Fransisco (2016); Jameel Prize, Pera Museum, Istanbul (2016); Memory and Continuity, Pera Museum, Istanbul (2016); Recentering Modernism, Art Basel, Hong Kong (2016); But Still Tomorrow Builds Into My Face, Lawrieshabibi, Dubai (2016); Memory and Continuity, Pera Museum, Istanbul (2016); Global/Local, The Grey Art Gallery, New York University (2016); Jacob's Ladder, Untitled Art Fair, Mimai Beach (2015); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India (2014); Young Collectors, Elgiz Museum, Istanbul (2014); The Tower of Babel Project, Deuxpiece, Basel (2014); Traces, Lawrieshabibi, Dubai (2013); For Which it stands, The Lodge Gallery, NY (2013); Chambres à Part VII: Dark to Light, Tower of London (2013); ArtCycle Discovers: MFA Prize, Gallery Brooklyn, NY (2013); Nearly Neutral, Barbara Walters Gallery, NY (2013); The Mykonos Biennale, Greece (2013); Dialoge: Shahpour Pouyan + Marwan Sahmarani, Art Basel, Volta8, Basel (2012). His work is held in public and private collections internationally including the permanent collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the British Museum, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He has participated in several international residencies including International Cite Des Arts, Paris, the Pegasus Art Foundation, Hyderabad, India, and the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York. For his most recent solo exhibition with the gallery please click here |