Lajevardi Foundation

The Lajevardi Foundation is a non-profit institution in Tehran working with contemporary and modern Iranian art. Ehsan Lajevardi, a publisher, art director and collector born in 1982, set it up in 2005. Its exhibition space is on Jafar Shahri Street in Tehran, and it also lists a base in Toronto.

Exhibitions sit alongside research, publishing and direct help for artists. The foundation publishes books through its own imprint and supports specialised journals of historical and cultural studies. It gives artists financial and moral support, and has held a series of events called Artist's Emergency Aid. It also collaborates with other institutions, non-governmental organisations and artists abroad.

Ehsan Lajevardi started the foundation's collection of contemporary art. Nūr, a selection of 20 works by Iranian artists, was shown at O Gallery in summer 2020. The works were made between the early 1970s and the early 2010s. Past exhibitions at the foundation include Homage to Hafez, 42 printed works by Günther Uecker first shown at the tomb of Hafez in Shiraz in 2016.