Abbas Zahedi’s interdisciplinary practice blends contemporary philosophy, poetics, and social dynamics with sound, sculpture, and other performative media. With an emphasis on how personal and collective histories interweave, Zahedi makes connections whenever possible with those around, in proximity to, or involved with the particular situations upon which he focuses. Through a non-approximate approach, one foregrounding the multiple specificities of a cite/site and those beyond sight, Zahedi invites others into an ongoing conversation. It is through careful gestures that Zahedi’s practice is enunciated.

Texts / Interviews
- Essay: Rooms We Leave Behind, Alessandro Rabottini, Mousse 82, 2023
- Interview: Galleries for grieving, En Liang Kong, Financial Times, 2022
- Essay: Frieze Artist Award, Eva Wilson, Frieze Week Magazine, 2022
- Review (solo): Metatopia 10013, Kaleem Hawa, ARTFORUM, 2022
- Interview: On the Rituals of Grieving, Jamila Prowse, FRIEZE, 2022
- Essay: Dissociative Realism, Arsalan Isa, 2022
- Press: Metatopia 10013, Anonymous, 2022
- Review: Ouranophobia by Sheena Patel, Rough Trade Books, 2022
- Essay: Abbas Zahedi: 11&1, Toby Upson, Belmacz, 2021
- Review: Sonic Support Group, Roisin Tapponi, FRIEZE, 2021
- Interview: To The Sour Sowers, The Mosaic Rooms, 2021
- Interview: Fear of heaven, Kashif Sharma-Patel, AQNB, 2021
- Review (solo): Ouranophobia SW3, Hammad Nasar, Ocula, 2021
- Review (solo): Ouranophobia SW3, Chloe Carroll, Art Monthly, 2021
- Interview: Ouranophobia SW3 (solo), Adam Hines-Green, 2020
- Interview (video): South London Gallery (solo), 2020
- Interview (audio): The Suite (212) Sessions with Juliet Jacques, 2020
- Essay: Transactional Objects, Cedric Fauq, Mousse Magazine 71, 2020
- Review (solo): How to Make a How from a Why?, The White Pube, 2020
- Review: AMRA, Spike Island, Amy Grace, Bristol24/7, November 2019
- Review: ME, MYSELF & A I I I (2017), Laura O’Leary, 2018
- Interview: Jum’ah at the Tate: Abbas Zahedi, Amaliah.com, January 2018
Solo Exhibitions
- Holding a Heart in Artifice, Nottingham Contemporary, Summer 2023
- Metatopia 10013, Anonymous Gallery, New York, 2022.
- 11 & 1, Belmacz, London 2021
- Ouranophobia SW3, Chelsea Sorting Office, 2020.
- How To Make A How From A Why?, Fire Station, South London Gallery, 2020.
Selected Group Exhibitions
- Divided Selves, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, 2023
- Horror in the Modernist Block, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2022
- The London Open, Whitechapel Gallery, 2022
- Beuys Open Source, Belmacz, London, 2021-2022
- SPACE Artist Awards Exhibition, SPACE Ilford, 2022
- Testament, Goldsmiths CCA, London, 2022
- Temporary Compositions, Gallery 31, Somerset House, 2021-2022
- SUPASTORE SOUTHSIDE, SLINGBACKS & SUNSHINE, SLG, 2021
- D·E·VALUATION, Mécènes du Sud Montpellier-Sète, France, 2021
- Governmental Fires, (cur. Cédric Fauq), FUTURA, Prague, 2021
- In Hindsight…, Bladr, Copenhagen, 2020
- B, Belmacz, London, 2019
- Degree Show, Central Saint Martins, London, 2019
- The Age of New Babylon, Lethaby Gallery, London, 2018
- Diaspora
Pavilion, (ICF), Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 2018 - °c, clearview.ltd, London, 2018
- appetite, Apiary Studios, London, 2018
- Standing Block, Burlington Camden, Lincoln Projects, London, 2017
- Diaspora Pavilion, (ICF), Palazzo Pisani a Santa Marina, Venice, 2017
- rb&hArts, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, 2008
Selected Projects
- Sonic Signals, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, 2022-2023
- Loading Loading, CAPC, Bordeaux, 2022-2023
- Waiting With {Sonic Support}, Frieze Artist Award, London 2022
- Brick Lane Foundation, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2021
- Sonic Support Group, Neurofringe, Chelsea Sorting Office, 2020 – ongoing
- To The Sour Sowers, The Mosaic Rooms, London, 2021
- The Boulevard, Tate Britain, London, 2018
- Studio Jum’ah, Tate Exchange, London, 2018
- BARBEDOUN via Square Root Soda Works, London, 2015 – 2017
- Sufra Food Bank & Kitchen, NW London, 2013
- Rumi’s Cave: Director & Resident Artist, London, 2013 – 2015
Fellowships / Residencies / Commissions
- Who is Abbas Zahedi?, Tate Kids, 2023
- Associate Artist: Postwar Modern, Barbican, London, 2022
- Brent Biennial 2022: Curatorial Committee, London, 2021 – 2022
- Becontree Forever, Create London, 2021
- Soul Refresher, Brent Biennial, London Borough of Culture 2020
- The Perfect Feeling, Rabbits Road Press & Bethlem Gallery, London, 2020
- Postgraduate Artist in Residence, South London Gallery, 2019/2020
- An Alternative Map of the Universe, ICF x Guest Projects, London, 2019
- The Boulevard, Tate Britain, London, 2018
- Studio Jum’ah, Tate Exchange, London, 2018
- Live Archive, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, 2018
- Agents of Creative Change, Battersea Arts Centre, London, 2018
- Formerly Called, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, 2018
- School for Social Entrepreneurs Fellowship, PwC, London, 2017
Performances / Dialogues / Interventions
- What is dead, what do we let die, Studio Voltaire, London, 2022
- Asia Forum for Contemporary Art, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, 2022
- Live Tour of 60 Years: An Unfinished Conversation, Tate Britain, 2021
- Open Mic Meditation, YARMONICS, Great Yarmouth, UK, 2021
- Mixtape for the Displaced Meditation, Mf_D, 2021
- Radio Amnion, Technical University of Munich, 2021
- Urgent Lecture Performance, Royal College of Art, 2021
- Collaboration & Connection, Artangel, Online 2021
- Mental Health, Race & Masculinity, Healing Justice London, 2021
- Long Table: Lament, South London Gallery, 2020
- AMRA, Spike Island, Bristol, 2019
- Rose & STEMM, Guest Projects, London, 2019
- BLOCK UNIVERSE, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2019
- MANNA from below, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2019
- The Conch, curated by Cédric Fauq, South London Gallery, 2019
- Curriculum, Rabbit’s Road Press, 2018
- Metaphonica IV, Mercury KX Records, CSM, London, 2018
- 24h Livestream Residency, Youtube & King’s Cross, London, 2018
- Diaspora Pavilion, Closing Program, Venice, 2017
- Sonic Soundings, curated by Erika Tan, Online & Venice, 2017
- #FakeBooze, Diaspora Pavilion, Venice, 2017
- In conversation with Brian Patten, Bradford Literature Festival, 2015
Screenings
- We Don’t Know Where We Are In The Drama, Becontree Forever, Create, 2021
- #DeleteTheBeans, Artangel, online, 2021
- #DeleteTheBeans, HOAX publications, online, 2020
- Body Politics and Mental Territory, DOCLISBOA, Lisbon, 2019
- Beyond the Body curated by Mania Akbari, Wolf Cinema, Berlin, 2019
- Diaspora Pavilion Closing Program, Venice, 2017
Artist Publications
- Audible Matter / Wave #6, Infrasonica, 2022
- semi-rational records of artchievement (artist book), Belmacz, 2021
- A Loss of Time?, Juf Project, Madrid, 2021
- Therapoiesis, ART WORK Magazine, issue two, 2021
- In This Space We Leave, Mixtape, South London Gallery, 2020
- Sermons, Rabbits Road Press & New Art Exchange, Nottingham, 2018
Public Collections
- Royal College of Art, 2021
- Tate, 2021
Trustee / Board Positions
- South London Gallery, 2021 – Present
Awards
- Frieze Artist Award, Frieze & Forma, UK, 2022
- Awards for Artists, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, UK, 2021
- Support Structures for Support Structures, Serpentine Gallery, UK, 2021
- SPACE Artist Awards, UK, 2021
- Thinking Time, Artangel, UK, 2020
- Jerwood Arts Bursary, 2019
- Aziz Foundation Academic Scholarship, 2018
- Khadijah Saye Memorial Fund Scholarship, 2017
- Annie Blaber Scholarship, Dounie Trust, 2017
- UCL Union Centenary Social Colours, 2008
Education
- MA Contemporary Photography; Practices and Philosophies, Fine Art Programme, Central Saint Martins, 2017-2019 – Merit
- MBBS Medicine, University College London, 2006-2011 – discontinued due to personal hardship.
- BSc. Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, 2002-2006 – first class honours, Dean’s list & faculty prize.
Academic
- Curating Nation, UAL, BAN, Yale, PMC, Tate, UK, 2021
- Guest Lecture: Central Saint Martins, London, 2021
- Guest Lecture: The Urgency of The Arts Assembly, Royal College of Art, 2021
- The Art of Disengaging, Royal College of Art, 2020
- European Forum for Advanced Practices, BAK, Utrecht, 2020 (postponed)
- Asia Art Activism Research Network, Raven Row, London, 2018
- Of Other Futures, Lethaby Gallery, London, 2018
- TrAIN Co-Lab Artist Research Residency, UAL, 2019/2020
- Belief & Conflict Forum, Kings College London, 2014-2015
- Fish Bar Symposium, Grove Fish Bar, London, 2010 – 2017
Teaching
- Associate Lecturer, MA Photography, Royal College of Art, UK, 2020-ongoing
- Visiting Tutor, Sculpture MA, Royal College of Art, UK, 2020-2022
- Visiting Tutor, BA Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, 2021-2022
- Visiting Tutor, FAHA, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, 2021-2022
- Visiting Tutor, Visual Comm. MA, Royal College of Art, UK, 2020-2021
- Guest Lecturer, London Metropolitan University, School of Art, 2021
- Guest Lecturer, Kingston School of Art, London, 2021
- Visiting Tutor, BA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins, London, 2021
- Visiting Tutor, Edinburgh College of Art, UK, 2020
- Visiting Tutor, MFA, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, 2020
Selected Press / Publications
- Review: Horror in the Modernist Block, Burlington Contemporary, 2023
- Featured: Artists to Watch Innovators, Artnet, 2022
- Featured: Monopol Magazine, Patricia Grzonka, 2022
- Interview: Artist Profile by Charlotte Jansen, The Art Newspaper, 2022
- Review: why postwar British art has never been more relevant, The Guardian, 2022
- Featured: 5 Notable Exhibitions Opening in New York This Week, ARTnews, 2022
- Featured: Bringing the Biennial Home, Eliel Jones, ArtReview, 2022
- Curation: 5 Films curated by Abbas Zahedi, Cryptofiction, 2021
- Featured: New Commissions by Leading Artists in Dagenham, FAD Magazine, 2021
- Featured: How can art and design bring people together to improve our mental health?, Jamila Prowse, It’s Nice That, 2021
- Featured: But Is It Art?, Taylor Le Melle, ArtReview, 2021
- Featured: Top Ten Shows from the UK and Ireland, Mimi Chu, Frieze, 2021
- Podcast: Art By Stealth: Chaired by critic Hettie Judah, ArtReview, 2021
- Radio: Fugitive Voices feat. Abbas Zahedi, Movement Radio (Athens), 2021
- Featured: Art by stealth, Hettie Judah, ArtReview, 2021
- Featured: Standout Artists of 2020, Elephant Magazine, 2020
- Featured: Brent Biennial, Hettie Judah, The Guardian, 2020
- Featured: Brent Biennial, Louisa Buck, The Art Newspaper, 2020
- Featured: Brent Biennial review, Peter Scott, Apollo, 2020
- Featured: Essential Artists: Abbas Zahedi, Elephant Magazine, 2020
- News: Artangel: Thinking Time, The Guardian, 2020
- Featured: Artist To Watch: Abbas Zahedi, Contemporary Art Society, 2020
- Featured: Curating for the Age of Blackness, Cedriq Fauq, Mousse, 2019
- Featured: SINK.SEXY x Abbas Zahedi, 2019
- Letter: British artists lament the value of art in schools, The Guardian, 2018
- News: Diaspora
Pavilion| Venice to Wolverhampton, E-Flux, February 2018 - Spotlight: Diaspora
Pavilion, Art Quarterly [ArtFund], Spring 2018 - News: Transforming an artist’s studio for prayer, Art Radar Journal, January 2018
- Opinion: Arts + Culture with Kazim Rashid, DAZED, January 2017
- Letter: Artists demand swift justice for Grenfell victims, The Guardian, 2017
- Television: Venice Biennale, Britain’s New Voices, BBC Two, 2017
- News: Diaspora Pavilion: Venice Biennale, Contemporary Art Society, 2017
- Television: Peter Yorke’s Hipster Handbook, BBC Four, 2016
- Feature: BARBEDOUN, Huffington Post, 2015
- Featured: OOMK zine, ISSUE 2: PRINT, 2013
- Featured: Cultural Crossroads, Roxane Zand, Sotheby’s Blog, 2012