Shahpour Pouyan (b. 1979, Iran) has an MFA in Integrated Practices and New Forms from the Pratt Institute, New York, and an MFA in Painting from the Tehran University of Art. Pouyan is currently the recipient of the 2020-2022 Kenneth Armitage Foundation Fellowship, London. 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.
Recent 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). 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).
Pouyan's 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.