Elham Puriya Mehr
Elham Puriya Mehr is an artist, curator and scholar based in Vancouver, BC. She holds a BA and MA from Tehran University of Art, a PhD in Art Research from Alzahra University, and completed her Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Advanced Practice at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research explores the potentialities of social spaces in alternative forms of ‘learning’ and ‘knowledge-making’ that generate through the possibilities offered by ‘events.’
Over the past eighteen years, Elham has worked internationally as an educator, curator, and writer, delivering lectures at conferences, symposiums, and public talks across a wide range of global contexts. Among her curatorial activities, she delivered a lecture at the National Museum of Iran (Tehran, 2025), served as the Artistic Director of the international symposium Contact Zone (Tehran, 2024), led the curatorial team for Live Assembly: Repair and Care (Live Biennale, Vancouver, 2021), co-curated the exhibition Beyond History at Framer Framed, Amsterdam (2015), curated the project Club 29 at Ag Experiment (Tehran, 2018), and curated The Fourth Annual Sanandaj (Kurdistan, Iran, 2013).
Her ongoing research and curatorial project, The Third Space: The Affective Atmosphere of Coffeehouses, has been presented internationally in London, Tehran, Vancouver, Trieste, Amsterdam, Istanbul, and Derry. Elham is also the co-director of Empty Space Studio, a nomadic, non-profit platform based in Tehran, London, and Vancouver.