Ab-Anbar is a contemporary art gallery that engages with the non-linear intersections of histories of Art and History. Often diasporic, Ab-Anbar represents artists from multiple latitudes and identities, who traverse the aesthetic and political, as well as social and psychological borders.
Ab-Anbar initially opened in 2014 in Tehran, Iran. The gallery is a conceptual representation of its name which means a water reservoir in Farsi. The word is made of two parts: 'ab' meaning water and 'anbar' meaning a reservoir. Thus, Ab-Anbar as a gallery is the architectural expression of a physical space that shapes malleable content, nurturing life and growth. The space, through its solidity and form, brings to sight the fluidity of art.
Since its inception, the gallery has presented exhibitions as well as hosted and collaborated with a variety of cultural tenants, not-for-profits, independent publishers, musicians, and performers, fashioning a year-long programme of wide-reaching cultural engagement.
2020 marked the beginning of Ab-Anbar’s program in London, UK. With its permanent and sole space, which opened in September 2023 in London’s historical Fitzrovia, the gallery intends to expand the dialogue between artists, collectors, museums and curators towards an inclusion and understanding of marginalised realities.
