Axel Pahlavi

Axel Pahlavi is a French painter born in 1975 in Teheran.

After one year at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, he joined Vladimir Velickovic’s studio at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he graduated with unanimous congratulations from the jury in 2001. During his studies at the ENSBA he was awarded a scholarship to study at Hunter College in New York, followed by another at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. He then completed a master’s degree at the Sofia Academy of Fine Arts in the studio of Svetlin Rusev, where he studied classical painting (2001-2002). On his return to France, he was offered a studio in Nice, where he lived until 2008.

Since 2009, he lives and works in Berlin. In 2010, Joelle Oosterlinks realised a 26-minutes documentary about his work for ARTE (L’art et la manière).

In 2012 Galerie Eva Hober, with whom he has worked for several years, published a monographic catalogue (Je t’aime à l’infini).

Since November 2020, he is represented by Galerie Isabelle Gounod in Paris.

His works can be found in numerous private collections in France, Belgium, Swiss, Germany, Austria, Italy and the United States (Jerry Speyer collection), as well as in contemporary art foundations (Fondation Salomon and Fondation Maeght in France) and museums (Frissiras museum in Athens).

In 2023, the exhibition Immortelle, which offers an ambitious panorama of young French painting at the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montpelier gives him a prominent place.

He has completed several artist residencies in France and abroad, including one in Seoul and more recently one in Armenia with the support of the French Institute and the Menk project.

His work aims to replace the question of the embodied human person as a central figure in contemporary painting. This leads him to question form through narrative, and narrative through form, in a process of constant renewal. Much of his paintings could be described as dreamlike realism. The artist says that he tries to “question the relationship between the notions of time and light in painting”.

AXEL PAHLAVI

Born in 1975 in Tehran, Iran.

Graduated from the ENSBA of Paris in 2001. Since 2009 lives and works in Berlin.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023      La grande tendresse, Collégiale Notre Dame de Nazareth, Pernes-les-Fontaines, France
2022      La grande tendresse, église Saint Pierre d´Arène, Nice, France
2021      Myriade, galerie Isabelle Gounod, Paris, France
2019      Veux-tu ? (théorème), galerie Eva Hober, France
2018     L´Asile de la Grâce, Edmond Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2017      Peindre dans tes yeux, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France
2014      Un millier de baisers de profondeur, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France
2013      Car je suis malade d’amour, Galerie de la Marine, Nice, France, France
2012      Talitha Kum, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France
2011      L’amour transperce la mort, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France
2009      Planète interdite, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France
2008      La porte immobile, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France
2007      Requiem, Luxe Gallery, New York, USA
2006      Fleur Fanatique, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France
2005      Soleils crashés, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023      Immortelle (co-curator: Numa Hambursin and Amélie Adamo), MO.CO. museum, Montpellier,       France
2023      Mimesis (curator: Guillaume Toumanian), galerie Lazarew, Paris, France
2023      Dé-voiler (curator: Amélie Adamo), H gallery, Paris, France
2023      Back to the future (with Aambulanz collective / curator: Katharina Schilling), Kunstverein Markdorf,            and Haus am Lützow Platz (Studio Galerie), Berlin, Germany
2022      L´ami.e modèle (curator: Mathieu Mercier), MUCEM museum, Marseille, France
2022      Mettre au monde (Co-curator: Amélie Adamo and Lucile Hitier), Centre d’art contemporain     l’arTsenal, Dreux, France
2022      Collection collective, collection du Centre d´art ACMCM, La Marina, Valence, Spain
2021      Art Vilnius´21, with Aambulanz collective, Vilnius, Lithuania
2020      Sans motif apparent (curator: Mathieu Weiler), la Ruche, Paris, France
2020      20 years Frissiras Museum: contemporary European artists, Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
2020      Fire, walk with me, musée d´art naif Anatole Jakovski, Nice, France
2019      Une affaire de passion, a choice of 53 paintings of the collection Nina & Jean-Claude Mosconi, Maison Christian & Yvonne Zervos, Vézelay, France
2019      Portraits contemporains, selfies de l´âme, Biennale d´Issy les Moulineaux, France.
2018      Art Berlin (fair for modern and contemporary art), Edmond Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2018     Quel amour !? (curator : Eric Corne), Musée d´Art Contemporain de Marseille, France, and Berardo museum, Lisbon, Portugal
2017      14 secondes, (curator : Corine Borgnet), 16 Centre d’art contemporain, Montreuil, France
2017      Kunstschorle (curator: Axel Pahlavi), Projektraum Ventilator, Berlin, Germany
2016      The Fine Crack (curator : Marc Wellmann ) Haus Am Lützowplatz, Berlin, Germany
2015      Les fragments de l’amour (curator : Lea Bismuth), CAC La Traverse, Alfortville, France
2015      Romeo Echo Alpha Lima (curators : Heike Kelter and Alex Tennigkeit), Kunstquartier Bethanien           Projetkraum, Berlin, Germany
2015      Haut les masques!, (curator : Corinna Weiss) Quartier Général Centre d’Art Contemporain, La             Chaux-de-Fonds, Swiss
2014      Painting III, Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
2014      Prendre le temps d’un morceau d’odalisque, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
2014      Les esthétiques d’un monde désenchanté, Abbaye Saint-André, CAC de Meymac, France
2013      La belle peinture II (curator : Eva Hober) Palais Pizstori, Bratislava, Slovakia / Phoenix Les Halles,   Mauritius
2013      Babylon, Galerie Wendt + Friedmann, Berlin, Germany
2012      La belle peinture est derrière nous (curator : Eva Hober), Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, France
and Umetnostna Galerija, Maribor, Slovenia
2012      Voir en peinture III (curator : Eric Corne), Galerie La Box, Bourges, France
2012      À l’origine Nice… (curator : Lola Gassin), Marlborough Gallery, Monaco
2011      Arc en ciel, Galerie Bom Zufall und Vom Glück & Städtische Galerie Kubus Hanover, Germany
2011      La belle peinture est derrière nous (curator : Eva Hober), Chankaya Art Center, Ankara, Turkey
2010      La belle peinture est derrière nous (curator : Eva Hober), Sanat Limani, Istanbul, Turkey
2010      Collection 3, Fondation pour l’art contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon, Alex, France
2009      Die neuen schönsten Franzosen sind in Berlin, Freies Museum, Berlin, Germany
2008      The flowers of evil still bloom, spleen, Les fleurs du mal, Cueto Project, New-York, USA
2007      Pat Andrea and friends, Pulchri Studio Den Haag, La Haye, Netherlands
2007      French Touche, Villa Tamaris Centre d’Art, La Seyne-sur-Mer, France
2006      Nos amours de vacances, CAC de Carros, France
2005      Carpenter Workshop, London, England
2004      Nice in Nice, Galerie Bernsteinzimme, Nuremberg, Germany
2004      Paranoïa, Moscow museum of architecture, Russia

EXHIBITIONS WITH FLORENCE OBRECHT

2023      The clown spirit – The Traveling Exhibition, collective exhibition (curator: Joanna De Vos), galerie Mucciaccia, Rome, Italy
2022      Et plonge dans l´au- delà, Galerie Samira Cambie, Montpellier
, France
2022      The circus, we are, exposition collective (curator: Joanna De Vos), Félicien Rops museum, Namur, Belgium
2020      Peinture de genre, Galerie Samira Cambie, Montpellier, France
2018      Harmonie au Jardin de la Grâce, galerie Lola Gassin, Nice, France
2017      Jusqu´à ce que la mort nous sépare, Centre d´art contemporain ACMCM, Perpignan, France
2014      En substance, Espace culturel du temple réformé de Sarre-Union, (curator: Le Triangle des Bermudes), France
2014      Planetarium Altera, Prokektraum Ventilator, Berlin, Germany
2006      Les mondes engloutis, galerie Solers, (with the support oft he french institute of Sofia), Sofia, Bulgaria
2005      Fiction, galerie Sintitulo, Mougins, France

MONOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION

2015      Le royaume, Axel Pahlavi & Florence Obrecht
2012      Je t’aime à l’infini, edited by Galerie Eva Hober, Paris
2010      L’art et la manière, monographic documentary from Joëlle Oosterlinck, 26 mn, ARTE