Persian-Canadian Artists

Iranian-Canadian artists are artists of Iranian background who live and work in Canada, and they work within a large community concentrated in two cities. In the 2021 census, 200,465 people in Canada reported Iranian as an ethnic or cultural origin, 88,915 of them in the Toronto metropolitan area and 45,815 in the Vancouver metropolitan area, and 222,160 people could hold a conversation in Iranian Persian. The sculptor Parviz Tanavoli, a founder of the Saqqakhaneh school of the 1960s, is described by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as Iranian-Canadian. In Vancouver, our gallery works with painters whose artist pages list Persian sources, including Melina Ghaemi, whom her page describes as an Iranian-Canadian abstract expressionist.

This page sets out the census figures with their exact definitions, the institutions that show Iranian art in Canada, and the Iranian-Canadian and Persian-inspired artists we can describe from verified sources. It is part of our guide to contemporary Iranian and Persian painting.

Key takeaways

• In the 2021 census, 200,465 people in Canada reported Iranian as an ethnic or cultural origin and 80,340 reported Persian, and Statistics Canada notes that one person may report more than one origin.
• The Toronto and Vancouver metropolitan areas together counted 134,730 people of Iranian origin, which is 67.2 percent of the national figure by our calculation from the census tables.
• In 2021, 222,160 people in Canada could conduct a conversation in Iranian Persian, and 179,425 had Iranian Persian as their mother tongue.
• The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto opened to the public on 18 September 2014, and in 2017 it showed 27 works by 23 contemporary Iranian artists, according to CBC Arts.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes the sculptor Parviz Tanavoli, born in Tehran in 1937, as Iranian-Canadian and says he has worked between Iran, the United States and Canada.

The Iranian community in Canada, in census figures

Statistics Canada publishes two kinds of figure that help describe the community: ethnic or cultural origin, and language. The table gives both for Canada and for the six metropolitan areas we checked, all from the Census Profile of the 2021 Census of Population.

Iranian and Persian origin and Persian language in the 2021 Canadian census, Canada and six census metropolitan areas

Area	Ethnic or cultural origin: Iranian	Ethnic or cultural origin: Persian	Can conduct a conversation in Iranian Persian	Mother tongue: Iranian Persian
Canada	200,465	80,340	222,160	179,425
Toronto metropolitan area	88,915	36,450	100,745	81,105
Vancouver metropolitan area	45,815	17,315	52,285	43,720
Montréal metropolitan area	23,705	7,635	25,495	20,580
Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area	8,185	3,335	8,585	6,305
Calgary metropolitan area	6,385	2,800	6,955	5,685
Edmonton metropolitan area	3,620	1,525	3,740	3,010

Of the six metropolitan areas, Toronto and Vancouver have the highest counts in every column. Together they hold 134,730 of the 200,465 people who reported Iranian origin, or 67.2 percent. Vancouver's figure of 45,815 is 1.9 times Montréal's 23,705.

How to read these numbers

Each figure measures something specific, and Statistics Canada defines each one in the notes to the Census Profile.

• Ethnic or cultural origin refers to the origins of a person's ancestors. The census lets a person report more than one origin, and Statistics Canada says the sum of the origins in the table is greater than the total population for that reason. The Iranian and Persian counts therefore overlap, and they cannot be added together to give a single community size.
• Knowledge of a non-official language means a person can conduct a conversation in a language other than English or French. The census lists "Iranian Persian" separately from "Persian (Farsi), not otherwise specified", which counted a further 30,345 people in Canada.
• Mother tongue is the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood. A further 25,975 people in Canada reported "Persian (Farsi), not otherwise specified" as their mother tongue.
• The origin and knowledge-of-language figures come from the census sample of one household in four; the mother tongue figures come from the full census count.

A narrower language measure counts the people who speak Persian most often at home. In 2021, 125,840 people in Canada spoke Iranian Persian most often at home, and a further 17,715 spoke Persian (Farsi) without specifying the variety. The figure was 57,085 in the Toronto metropolitan area and 30,985 in the Vancouver metropolitan area. These counts are lower than the knowledge figures because the home-language question records the language a person speaks most often at home, while the knowledge question counts every language a person can hold a conversation in.

Every number in the table can be checked against the published Census Profile pages listed in the references.

Where Iranian art is shown in Canada

The Aga Khan Museum, Toronto

The Aga Khan Museum opened to the public on 18 September 2014, according to its own history page. Its collection includes classical Persian painting, such as a page from the Shahnameh made for Shah Ismail II in Qazvin, dated to c. 1576, showing the tyrant Zahhak consulting his physicians.

The museum has also shown contemporary Iranian art. CBC Arts reported on 10 February 2017 that the exhibition Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians, curated by Fereshteh Daftari, presented 27 works by 23 artists from the collection of the financier Mohammed Afkhami, and that it ran until 4 June 2017. CBC described it as the world premiere of the show. The same report said Parviz Tanavoli's Heech sculptures were both in the exhibition and "installed outside the museum".

Parviz Tanavoli

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's page for his Poet Turning Into Heech gives his nationality as Iranian-Canadian, his birthplace as Tehran and his birth year as 1937, and says he has "worked between his native Iran, the United States, and Canada". The Met calls him one of the founders of the Saqqakhaneh school and says he began his heech sculptures, renditions of the Persian word for "nothing", in the early 1960s. CBC Arts called him a "Canadian-Iranian artist". His bronze The Wall (Oh Persepolis) sold for $2.8 million at Christie's Dubai on 30 April 2008, which The Art Newspaper reported as a world record for an Iranian artist at auction at that time. Our pages on modern Iranian art and Persian calligraphy in painting say more about his work.

Iranian-Canadian and Persian-inspired painters at our gallery

We are a gallery in Vancouver, at 1242 Davie Street. Visitors can walk in during opening hours or book a private viewing. We describe the painters below only as their artist pages on our site describe them.

Melina Ghaemi

The page for Melina Ghaemi describes her as "an Iranian-Canadian abstract expressionist whose canvases transmit rather than depict", working in acrylic, oil and mixed media with gestural brushwork and heavy impasto. It lists her inspirations as Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Persian calligraphic gesture, Vancouver's rain and light, and music. Our page on Iranian women artists places her beside the women who shaped Iranian modernism.

Painters whose pages name Persian sources

Several other painters we work with are described on their pages as Vancouver artists, and their pages list Persian sources among their inspirations. We state those sources, and nothing more.

• Amir Fazelian, a watercolour and mixed-media artist, whose Div series "reimagines Persian mythology for the algorithmic age" and whose listed inspirations include Persian mythology and the Shahnameh.
• Marjan Mousavi, an acrylic painter whose page says her work draws on "the natural world and Persian lyrical traditions", and lists Persian lyrical poetry and Rumi.
• Roshan, a painter in acrylic and oil whose page says she is most famous for her Tree of Life series, with Sufi poetry and Persian miniature painting among her inspirations.
• Ziba Vishteh, whose page lists "Persian poetry's treatment of absence"; Nahira, whose page lists Persian poetry; Nima Sayadian, whose page lists Persian mythology; and Phaedra, whose page lists Persian miniature painting.

The gallery also shows Kamal al-Din Ghotb, whose page says he has practised Persian painting for 41 years and works in the classical miniature tradition in oil and gold on paper.

Buying from a Canadian gallery

A painting made in Canada and shipped from Vancouver is a Canadian export. We ship free and fully insured to Canada in 3 to 7 business days and to the United States in 5 to 10 business days, and every work comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. Buyers in the United States can read our overview of buying original art from Canada. The sanctions rules that apply to work shipped from Iran are different, and our page on how to buy contemporary Iranian art sets them out with the regulation text.

Frequently asked questions

How many people in the Vancouver area report Iranian origin?

In the 2021 census, 45,815 people in the Vancouver census metropolitan area reported Iranian as an ethnic or cultural origin, and 17,315 reported Persian. Statistics Canada notes that people can report more than one origin. In the same area, 52,285 people could conduct a conversation in Iranian Persian.

How many people in the Toronto area report Iranian origin?

In the 2021 census, 88,915 people in the Toronto census metropolitan area reported Iranian as an ethnic or cultural origin, the highest count of any metropolitan area we checked, and 36,450 reported Persian. In the same area, 100,745 people could conduct a conversation in Iranian Persian and 81,105 had it as their mother tongue.

How many people in the Montreal area report Iranian origin?

In the 2021 census, 23,705 people in the Montréal census metropolitan area reported Iranian as an ethnic or cultural origin and 7,635 reported Persian. That is the third-highest Iranian count among the six metropolitan areas we checked, after Toronto with 88,915 and Vancouver with 45,815.

How many people in Canada can speak Persian?

In the 2021 census, 222,160 people in Canada could conduct a conversation in Iranian Persian, and a further 30,345 reported Persian (Farsi) without specifying the variety. Statistics Canada defines this knowledge as the ability to conduct a conversation in a language other than English or French.

How many Canadians have Persian as their mother tongue?

In the 2021 census, 179,425 people in Canada had Iranian Persian as their mother tongue, and 25,975 more reported Persian (Farsi) without specifying the variety. Statistics Canada defines mother tongue as the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood. The Toronto area counted 81,105 and the Vancouver area 43,720.

Why can the Iranian and Persian census counts not be added together?

The Iranian and Persian census counts cannot be added because one person can report more than one ethnic or cultural origin. Statistics Canada notes that the sum of origins in its table is greater than the total population for this reason. In 2021, 200,465 Canadians reported Iranian origin and 80,340 Persian.

When did the Aga Khan Museum open?

The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto opened to the public on 18 September 2014, according to the museum. Its collection includes classical Persian painting, such as a Shahnameh page made for Shah Ismail II and dated to c. 1576, and it has shown contemporary Iranian art.

What was the Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet exhibition?

Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians was a 2017 exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, curated by Fereshteh Daftari, of 27 works by 23 Iranian artists from the collection of Mohammed Afkhami. CBC Arts reported that it ran until 4 June 2017 and included Parviz Tanavoli's Heech sculptures.

Is Parviz Tanavoli Iranian-Canadian?

Parviz Tanavoli is described as Iranian-Canadian by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which gives his birthplace as Tehran and his birth year as 1937 and says he has worked between Iran, the United States and Canada. CBC Arts called him a Canadian-Iranian artist, and his Heech sculptures stand outside the Aga Khan Museum.

Which Vancouver painters at VanArtHub list Persian poetry among their inspirations?

Vancouver painters at VanArtHub whose artist pages list Persian poetry among their inspirations include Marjan Mousavi, whose page names Persian lyrical poetry and Rumi, Ziba Vishteh, whose page names Persian poetry's treatment of absence, and Nahira, whose page names Persian poetry. Roshan's page lists Sufi poetry and Persian miniature painting.

Where can I see Persian-inspired paintings in Vancouver?

Persian-inspired paintings can be seen at VanArtHub Gallery, 1242 Davie Street, Vancouver, which is open to walk-in visitors during opening hours and also offers private viewings. The gallery shows classical miniatures by Kamal al-Din Ghotb and contemporary work by painters such as Melina Ghaemi and Amir Fazelian, whose pages list Persian sources.

References

1. Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Canada. Statistics Canada. Modified 5 June 2026. Accessed 26 September 2026. The national figures for Iranian and Persian origin, knowledge of Iranian Persian and Persian (Farsi), and mother tongue, and the definitions of each measure.
2. Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Toronto census metropolitan area. Statistics Canada. Modified 5 June 2026. Accessed 26 September 2026. The Toronto figures.
3. Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Vancouver census metropolitan area. Statistics Canada. Modified 5 June 2026. Accessed 26 September 2026. The Vancouver figures.
4. Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Montréal census metropolitan area. Statistics Canada. Modified 5 June 2026. Accessed 26 September 2026. The Montréal figures.
5. Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Ottawa-Gatineau census metropolitan area. Statistics Canada. Modified 5 June 2026. Accessed 26 September 2026. The Ottawa-Gatineau figures.
6. Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Calgary census metropolitan area. Statistics Canada. Modified 5 June 2026. Accessed 26 September 2026. The Calgary figures.
7. Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Edmonton census metropolitan area. Statistics Canada. Modified 5 June 2026. Accessed 26 September 2026. The Edmonton figures.
8. Our History. Aga Khan Museum. Undated. Accessed 26 September 2026. The opening to the public on 18 September 2014.
9. Zahhak Consults the Physicians, Folio from the Book of Kings (Shahnameh) of Shah Ismail II, AKM71. Aga Khan Museum. Undated. Accessed 26 September 2026. The Shahnameh page dated to c. 1576 in the museum's collection.
10. 'Self-expression over silence': Iranian artists share their perspectives in this revelatory exhibit. Chris Hampton, CBC Arts. Published 10 February 2017. Accessed 26 September 2026. The 2017 exhibition, its curator, size, source collection and closing date, and Tanavoli's Heech sculptures outside the museum.
11. Parviz Tanavoli, Poet Turning Into Heech. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Undated; Internet Archive copy of 6 March 2026. Accessed 26 September 2026. Tanavoli's nationality, birthplace and year, his work between three countries and his heech sculptures.
12. Iranian artists triumph at Christie's Dubai as contemporary market hits its stride. The Art Newspaper. Published 1 June 2008. Accessed 26 September 2026. The $2.8 million sale of The Wall (Oh Persepolis).
13. Melina Ghaemi. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 26 September 2026. The gallery's description of her, her media and her inspirations, and the gallery's address and private viewings.
14. Amir Fazelian. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 26 September 2026. The gallery's description of him as a Vancouver artist and of the Div series.
15. Marjan Mousavi. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 26 September 2026. The gallery's description of her work and inspirations.
16. Roshan. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 26 September 2026. The gallery's description of her work and inspirations.
17. Kamal al-Din Ghotb. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 26 September 2026. The gallery's description of his practice.

Checked 26 September 2026. If something here is out of date, write to us and we will correct it.