Shadi Shadbahr is a cultural worker, gallery director, and curator whose practice centers on revitalizing community engagement with the arts, with a focus on immigrant and diasporic narratives. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Vancouver’s Iranian Visual Arts (VIVA) Alliance, a non-profit organization, and the Director of Medias Res Gallery, situated on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Medias Res presents diverse artistic perspectives that challenge disciplinary and cultural boundaries, offering new critical ways of looking at the world and our place in it.
Through VIVA Alliance, she has helped lead and develop public exhibitions—including annual presentations at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre—such as Unveiling Honour (2023), An Evolving Aesthetics of Interruption (2024), On Origin Stories (2025), and Of Wounds and Songs (2025), a collaborative exhibition with Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George. VIVA’s gallery, studio programs, workshops, and community partnerships work collectively to cultivate inclusive spaces for artistic dialogue and cultural exchange.
Born in Tehran and based in Canada since 2002, Shadbahr’s cross-disciplinary background, along with her research in Iranian diasporic art, informs a practice dedicated to building accessible, community-rooted cultural infrastructures.
