Born in Iran, in 1979, Shahpour Pouyan has an MFA in Integrated Practices and New Forms at Pratt Institute, New York, and has an MFA in Painting from the Tehran University of Art. He previously studied Neoplatonic Philosophy at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy and received a diploma in Math and Physics from Elmieh School, Tehran. Between 2007 and 2009 he taught art history and the history of Persian Architecture at Science and Culture University, Tehran. He currently lives and works in New York.
Shahpour Pouyan’s work is a commentary on power, domination and possession through the force of culture. His artwork seeks to transform historical or political issues into a monument of poetic and visual form. The repetition of mistakes and errors is one of his main concerns, and he reflects this by bringing historical aesthetics and mediums to his contemporary art practice, for example, reinventing chainmail, helmets and Persian miniatures. His work does not announce a political agenda; instead, he grapples with materials provided from the political world and historic documents; the poetic qualities of power and the human condition inspire him. His recent works and projects are influenced by science, archeology, and the poetry of architectural forms that bridge past and present.
He has participated in Lahore Biennial in Pakistan; National Art Museum of China in Beijing, British Museum in London, and Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kochi Island. His work is part of many prominent private and public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The British Museum, The Abby Weed Grey Collection of Modern Asian and Middle Eastern Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, and etc..
In 2016, Pouyan was shortlisted for the Victoria and Albert Museum Prize, London, UK and has been awarded the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship for Visual Arts in Umbria, Italy. 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, NY, USA in March 2014.
CV
EDUCATION
2012 MFA, New Forms and Integrated Practices, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2007 MFA, Painting, Tehran University of Art, Iran
2005 Neoplatonism Studies, Iranian Institute of Philosophy, Tehran, Iran
2004 BFA, Painting, Art University, Tehran, Iran
2000 Math and Physics Diploma, Elmieh School of Tehran, Iran
BIENNALES
2023 “Islamic Art Biennale,” Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2018 “LB01,” Lahore Biennial, Lahore, Pakistan
2017 “The Silk Road and World’s Civilizations,” Beijing Biennale, China
2016 “For An Image, Faster Than Light,” Yinchuan Biennale, Yinchuan, China
2014 “Whorled Explorations,” Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi Island, India
2013 Mykonos Biennale, Mykonos Island, Greece
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 “Winter in Paradise,” Frist Museum, Nashville, U.S.
2023 “Cyclupses in Doubt, Observing the West,” Tokyo Gallery + BTAP, Tokyo, Japan
2022 “249 Kilometers by 68 Meters,” Nathalie Obadiah Gallery, Paris, France
2021 “Skyhigh Is My Place,” Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Ghent, Belgium.
2021 “Methinks These Be Devils Three,” Nathalie Obadiah Gallery, Brussels, Belgium.
2019 “After Examining the Logbook, the Doctors Assume They Are Dealing With the Plague,” Nathalie Obadiah Gallery, Paris, France.
2019 “Monday Recollections of Muqarnas Dome,” Barbara Walters Gallery, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville
2018 “Wūshuǐ,” Copperfield Gallery, London, U.K.
2018 “The Incarnation of the Body Politic,” The Armory Show, New York City.
2017 “We Owe This Considerable Land to the Horizon Line,” Nathalie Obadiah Gallery, Paris, France.
2015 “History Travels at Different Speeds”, Copperfield Gallery, London, U.K.
2014 “PTSD,” Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai, U.A.E.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 “All About the Vessel,” Kunsthaus Blaue Butter, Gmunden, Austria.
2023 The Victoria and Albert Museum, Display at Room 143, London, U.K.
2023 “Toucher Terre,” Espace Monte-Cristo, Paris, France
2023 “Metters les Forms,” Obadia Galerie, Paris, France
2022 “Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art”, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London, UK
2022 “Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians,” Asia Society Museum, New York City
2022 “Selection from the NYU Art Collection”, The Grey Art Gallery, NYU, New York City
2021 “Contemporary Ceramic Art from the Middle East”, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2021 “Skin & Hair”, Keramiek Museum Princessehof, Leeuwarden, Netherlands
2020 “Prelude: Melancholy of the future”, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Ghent, Belgium
2020 “Miniature 2.0”, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
2020 “BLUE”, Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2020 “Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance”, Rubin Museum, New York City
2019 “Diplomacy,” Yeh Art Gallery, St. John’s University, New York City
2019 “Punk Orientalism,” MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada. Curated by Sara Raza
2018 “In the Fields of Empty Days,” Los Angeles County Museum
2018 “The New Minimalists, “Abrons Art Center, New York City
2017 “Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians,” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
2017 “Iranian Voice,” British Museum, London, U.K.
2016 “Home Land Security,” Fort Winfield Scott, San Francisco
2016 “Memory and Continuity”, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
2016 “Global/Local,” Grey Art Gallery New York University, New York City
2014 “Young Collectors,” Elgiz Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
2013 “Chambres à Part VII: Dark to Light,” Tower of London, London, U.K.
2012 “Centrefold 8,” Zabludowicz Collection,” Art Projects, London, U.K.
2012 “Domination, Hegemony and The Panopticon”, Traffic, Dubai, UAE
2011 “Artbeat Istanbul”, Center Lutif Kirdar, Istanbul, Turkey
2010 “Performance Box Curatorship”, Mohsen Art Gallery, Téhéran, Iran
2010 “Sous Le Radar”, JTM, Paris, France
2008 “Third International Digital Miniprinte Exhibition, Le Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle”, Ottawa, Canada
SELECTED AWARDS AND HONORS
2024 The AIDS Memorial of London, Shortlisted Artist, London, U.K.
2023 Ceramic Fellowship, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London
2022 The Ellsworth Kelly Award for Visual Arts
2022, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York
2020 Fellowship at the Kenneth Armitage Foundation, London
2019 Fellowship at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York
2016 Fellowship at Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbertide, Italy
2015 Shortlisted for Victoria and Albert Museum prize for Islamic Art Prize, London
2014 Fellowship at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York City
2011 Fellowship at Pegasus Art Foundation, State Art Gallery, Hyderabad, India
2007 Grant, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts awarded for the residency program, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
PUBLIC APPEARANCES
Saskatchewan Weekend, CBC, Regina, 2018
C-Arts TV, PBS, New York City, 2017
“Profile: Shahpour Pouyan,” BBC, May 2015
Radio Report and Conversation between Murtaza Vali and Lee Xie, In Book of Lee Program, March 31, 2014
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Foundation Villa Datris, Paris (France)
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, (USA)
Abby Weed Grey Collection of Modern Asian and Middle Eastern Art, New York (USA)
British Museum, London (UK)
Cornell University Herbert F. Jonhson Museum Of Art (USA)
The Farjam Collection, Dubai (UAE)
Houston Fine Arts Museum, Houston, TX (USA)
Huma Kabakci Collection, Istanbul (Turkey)
Keramiekmuseum Princessehof, Leeuwarden (The Netherlands) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (USA)
Mohammed Afkhami Collection, Dubai (UAE)
Omer Koç, Istanbul (Turkey)
SYZYGY, New York (USA)
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran (Iran)
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (UK)
Zoroastrian Cultural Institute, Paris (France)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2023 Olivia McEvan, “The Wonderously Defiant Art of Contemporary Ceramics”, Hyperallergic, January
2023 Penny Dan Xu, “Art Conversation: Shahpour Pouyan”, Canvas Magazine, June
2022 Jordan Amirkhani, “In the Studio: Shahpour Pouyan”, Art in America, December
2022 Laura Cumming, “Strange Clay Review: Dynamic Ceramic”, The Guardian, October
2023 Kenichi Kondo, “Architecture, the Middle East conflict, East-West relations”, bijutsutecho, December
2020 Huma Kabakci, “10 minutes interview”, Open Space Contemporary, July
2018 Anna Wallace-Thompson, “Shahpour Pouyan at Copperfield, London”, Art Review, December
2018 Rahel Aima, “Shahpour Pouyan: My Place is the Placeless”, Art Review Asia, Spring
2018 Rebecca Close, “ ‘My Place is the Placeless’: Iranian artist Shahpour Pouyan at Lawrie Shabibi”, Dubai, Art Radar, December 12
2018 “A New Body of Work by Shahpour Pouyan”, Islamic Arts Magazine, March 7
2018 Kelly Crow, “High Tech Meets High Art at the Armory Show”, Wall Street Journal, March 5
2017 Jason Farago, “Art Basel Miami Beach, Post-Irma, Is Still Swinging,” The New York Times, December 7
2017 Nick Leech, “ ‘My Place is the Placeless’: Shahpour Pouyan at Lawrie Shabibi”, The National, December 12
2017 Jyoti Kalsi, “Rejecting labels of identity,” Gulf News, December 20
2017 Anna Sansom, “We Owe This Considerable Land to the Horizon Line”, Damn Magazine, May
2017 Efi Michalarou, “New Comers: Shahpour Pouyan”, Dream Idea Machine, March
2016 Gabrielle Gopinath, “Home Land Security at The Presidio”, SFAQ, December
2016 Amei Wallach, “Awaiting Armageddon”, Art in America, November
2016 Kevin Jones, “Tehran Days,” Art Asia Pacific, Sep/Oct
2016 Anna Wallace-Thompson, “Global/Local”, Artforum, 20 March
2016 Livia Alexander, “Tracing tradition in a survey of six Iranian artists,” Hyperallergic, 18 March
2016 Michael Fitzgerald, “Global/Local review,” The Wall Street Journal, 2 February
2016 Holland Cotter, “Six Artists from Iran,” New York Times, 14 January
2015 Rob Sharp, “How the Global Refugee Crisis Is Impacting and Influencing Artists”, Artsy, 5 November
2015 Dale Berning Sawa, “Unfamiliar Territory”, The Guardian, 28 September
2014 Amy Kisch, “Climbing Jacob’s Ladder”, Fine Art Magazine, December
2014 Kevin Jones, “PTSD SHAHPOUR POUYAN”, Flash Art, May 4
2014 Bharti Lakwani, “PTSD Review”, Harpers Bazaar, May 1
2014 Anna Seaman, “SHAHPOUR POUYAN AT LS”, The National, March 31
2013 Jyoti Kalsi, “Traces of Humans”, Gulf News, July 4
2013 Danna Lorch, “A Scientist And A Philosopher”, Danna Writes, July 2
2013 Paddy Johnson, “ArtCycle Discovers Prize”, Art Fag City, January 30
2011 Ali Bakhtiari, “Path and Glory”, Contemporary Practices, November 1
2011 Jyoti Kalsi, “Allegory of Authority”, Gulf News, May 13
2011 Jason Rezaian, “Inside Iran: The Art of Resistance”, Global Post, April 19
2010 Daniel Barney, “Iranian artists portray life under regime”, The Christian Science Monitor, September 28
2009 Soheila Niakan, “Towers come behind you”, Hamshahri, Tehran ISSN 1735-6385 Vol.17, No.4843, 25 May
2009 Raziqueh Hussain, “Power and Glory”, Khaleej Times, Dubai, 20 February
BOOKS
2022 Media Farzin, Pepe Karmel,Antony Hudek, “Skyhigh is my place”, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, ISBN:9-789076-034300
2021 Shahpour Pouyan, William Lawrie, “TEN: Selected projects from 2009-2019”, Lawrie Shabibi and Nathalie Obadia Gallery, ISBN: 978-1-63821-100-6