Abbas Akhavan’s First Major U.S. Exhibition Opens at Walker Art Center

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis will open Abbas Akhavan: Variations on a Garden on November 12, 2026. This exhibition is the artist’s first mid-career survey and his first major show in the United States, and will be on view through April 18, 2027.

Variations on a Garden brings together significant works from across Akhavan’s 20-year career, with many pieces being shown in the U.S. for the first time. The exhibition provides a comprehensive look at the development of Akhavan’s artistic practice and highlights recurring conceptual themes present throughout his projects.

A central motif in Akhavan’s work is the concept of the garden, which serves as a reflection of dichotomies such as nature versus culture, public versus private, wild versus domesticated, and valued versus discarded. The exhibition invites visitors to consider how history, culture, and aspects of nature have been shaped and reshaped by human-driven events and power dynamics over time.

The show is curated by Pavel Pyś, the Walker’s curator of visual arts and collections strategy, in close dialogue with Akhavan and with support from assistant curator Brandon Eng. To honor the importance of architecture and spatial relationships in Akhavan’s practice, monumental works are given their own rooms or large dedicated environments, immersing visitors in the experience of the works.

Accompanying the exhibition is a 280-page fully illustrated publication, the artist’s first monograph, produced by the Walker Art Center. The book includes a conversation between Akhavan and Brandon Eng, as well as essays by Pavel Pyś, David Joselit, and Oxana Timofeeva. The design was led by Ben Schwartz from the Walker’s in-house design studio.

The exhibition is organized by the Walker Art Center with lead support from the Teiger Foundation, major support from Lewis Baskerville and the Martin and Brown Foundation, and additional support from Elisa Nuyten, and Tara and Christopher Poseley. It is part of the Walker’s ongoing partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, which is home to one of the first urban sculpture parks in the United States and the well-known Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture.