Shahpour Pouyan

The work of Shahpour Pouyan (b. 1979, Iran) is a commentary about power, domination and possession through the force of culture. His interest lies in singling out particular objects whose images captivate him, and by painting them he releases the feeling of anguish they create.

Pouyan has participated in numerous prestigious exhibitions at institutions including at the British Museum, London; Pera Museum, Istanbul; Rubin Museum, New York; Aga Khan Museum, Toronto; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angelis; and the National Art Museum of China, Beijing, amongst others. He has participated in the Lahore Biennial and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

His work is part of many prominent private and public collections including: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York; Collection of Robert Littman and Sully Bonnelly, New York, USA; The Abby Weed Grey Collection of Modern Asian and Middle Eastern Art, New York; The British Museum, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Mohammed Afkhami Collection, Dubai, Huma Kabakci Collection, Istanbul; SYZYGY, New York; The Farjam collection, Dubai; Zoroastrian Cultural Institute, Paris and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran.

In 2016, Pouyan was shortlisted for the Jameel Prize 4 by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK and has been awarded the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship for Visual Arts in Umbria, Italy. He is currently the Kenneth Armitage Fellow in London. He has an MFA in Integrated Practices and New Forms at Pratt Institute, New York and an MFA in Painting from the Tehran University of Art.

Pouyan currently lives and works between New York and London.