Keyvan Paydar

Keyvan Paydar (b. 1984 Teheran, lives in Graz) repeatedly addresses controversial social issues such as religiosity, power and the role of gender. Paydar performs his works in a wide variety of artistic media such as performance, sculpture, painting and video, whereby the clearly conceptual character is expressed in a number of projects (e.g. a cooperation with Ae Hee Lee during his residency in Berlin 2017). Many works are created - depending on the context - in public venues (Urban Space Odyssey, 2020; PHANTOM LIMBS, 2018) or in such "non-artistic" locations during a hospital stay: Abstract Narration is a screen with drawings on napkins. Paydar borrowed the markers from the nurses. 

 

Virtuosic, unusual and experimental, Paydar represents his self-will as a multimedia artist. Again and again he is drawn from visual arts to performing arts to music. Projects such as the MIMA (mixing machine) or performances with saxophonist Norbert Stammberger at Halle 6 in Munich, where P. builds headgear from washing machine drums that the two musicians wear while freely improvising, testify to the artist's interdisciplinary commitment. As a musician and conductor, he also plays and works with the Styrian Improvisers Orchestra (STIO).

EDUCATION

 

He studied painting and anthropology of art in Iran and sculpture with Markus Wilfling and ceramics with Irmgard Schaumberger in the master classes at Ortweinschule, Graz. Since 2013 he has worked as a freelance multimedia artist, art educator, musician and independent curator among others at "Atelierhaus Schaumbad Graz" where he has also as a board member since 2021. Paydar took part in international exhibitions, symposiums and residency programs, ran a pop-up gallery in Graz and organized regional and international art projects.

CURATORIAL WORKS

 

2023GIF, Grazer Impro Fest (9 days festival for improvised music & more), at Schaumbad Graz

2016 – 2019Please Mind the Gap,16 solo exhibitions, pop-up gallery Bordsteinschwalbe, Graz

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 

 

2023Quotenscheich X.O at the 20th anniversary of Kunsthaus Graz

2023Next Erasmus + at PM gallery, home of HDLU, Zagreb

2022Part of Piece at gallery Nowan in Tehran

2021INvisible at gallery FLAT1 in Vienna

2014Gummed Networks performance at Forum Stadtpark in Graz

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

 

2021Studio das weisse Haus at Vienna

2018Klangbüro in Halle 6 at Munich

2017Montagehalle at Berlin

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

 

2020Art promotion price from the city of Graz

2015Cultural service corporation from Land Styria

1998International caricature biennial at the museum of contemporary art Tehran

 

Date of residency: 01.05.2024 – 30.06.2024