"In my work, I focus on and critique the visual stereotypes and performative aspects that shape female gender, national and ethnic identity. My perspective is that of a Canadian-Iranian exilic and diasporic artist who is questioning while also trying to assert gender and cultural identity. In particular, I focus on the performances through which individuals express such identities and I critique the value and legitimacy of authenticity and cultural expression. Moreover, I am interested in how race and gender are performed from multiple layered perspectives: exilic, decolonial and diasporic. While performing stereotypes, I focus on fantasy, whether it is the viewer’s fantasy or my own."

- Rah Eleh

Rah Eleh is a video, digital and performance artist and a PhD candidate at the die Angewandte (University of Applied Arts) in Vienna, Austria. Rah’s work has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally at spaces including: Venice Biennale (ECC, Palazzo Mora), The Juno Awards (Canada), National Museum (Oslo, Norway), Vögele Kultur Zentrum, (Pfäffikon, Switzerland), Nuit Blanche (Toronto), Museum London, Vienna Art Week (Austria), Carleton University Art Gallery (Ottawa), Williams College Museum of Art (Williamstown, Massachusetts), Miami Art Basel, Nieuwe Vide (Haarlem, Netherlands), SomoS Art Haus (Berlin, Germany), Kunsthaus Graz Museum (Graz, Austria), and Onassis Cultural Center (Athens, Greece). She has been the recipient of numerous awards including: Long listed for 2023 Sobey Art Award, Chalmers Arts Fellowship, numerous Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Art Council Grants, and SSHRC for her MFA and the SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship for her PhD. She has been awarded several residencies including the ONX Studio (NYC, NY, 2024), Intergenerational LGBTQ Artist Residency (Toronto Island, 2019), Koumaria Residency (Greece, 2016), MUU Galleria (Helsinki, 2015), Studio Das Weisse Haus (Vienna, 2014) and the Artslant Georgia Fee Residency (Paris).