UBC Art History, Visual Art and Theory

Heartfelt congratulations to AHVA alum Abbas Akhavan (MFA ’06) for representing Canada at the 61st Venice Biennale!

Akhavan’s installation ‘Entre chien et loup’ will be on view from May 9 until November 22, 2026.

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.

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Representing Canada at the 61st Venice Biennale, Abbas Akhavan’s ‘Entre chien et loup’ — a pink-hued and humid greenhouse — is home to Victoria water lillies, referencing the plant’s display at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London’s Crystal Palace.