Installation view, Abbas Akhavan: Entre chien et loup, 2026, Canada Pavilion, 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada and presented in partnership with the National Gallery of Canada Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. © Abbas Akhavan. Photo: Francesco Barasciutti
We are thrilled to share that AHVA alum Abbas Akhavan (MFA ’06) is currently representing Canada at the 61st Venice Biennale.
Akhavan’s installation Entre chien et loup is on view at the Canada Pavilion until November 22, 2026. The installation reimagines the pavilion as a Wardian case, a tool used to transport plants throughout the British Empire in the nineteenth century. Featuring a custom pool outfitted with grow lights to present giant water lilies of the genus Victoria, the pavilion evokes the Crystal Palace, which was constructed to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, where the plant was prominently displayed.
The installation is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication featuring texts by Akhavan, Federico Campagna, Nguyen, Stefano Riccioni, AHVA Associate Professor and Visual Art Associate Head Marina Roy, Asli Seven, and Lucy T. Smith. Curator Kim Nguyen is also an alum of AHVA’s Critical and Curatorial Studies program (MA ’08).
Akhavan is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice reflects on the relationships between place and history and attends to the geopolitical forces that define spaces. He gave an artist talk “Variations on a Garden” in March 2025 as part of AHVA’s Joan Carlisle-Irving Lecture Series, co-sponsored with Green College and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. His work was exhibited at the Belkin in Abbas Akhavan: One Hundred Years from September 5 to December 7, 2025.
Congratulations, Abbas!
