ABOUT

Roya Khadjavi is a gallerist, independent curator and cultural producer based in New York City. Under Roya Khadjavi Projects, she has organized over 40 exhibitions since 2014 with over 60 artists and has participated in numerous art fairs internationally to promote the emerging and mid-career Iranian artists living in Iran and the diaspora. She has largely focused on the work of these artists, seeking not only to support their artistic endeavors but to also facilitate awareness and cultural dialogue between artistic communities by attending and participating in Conferences and panel discussions in the US and in Europe.

Roya has been a collector and a patron of the arts for over 20 years. Since 2008, she has actively led exhibition committee efforts around the art of the Middle East for institutions including the Guggenheim Museum and the Asia Society, where she sat on the steering committee of the critically acclaimed exhibit Iran Modern in 2013. Khadjavi co-founded the Institute of International Education’s Iran Opportunities Fun in in 2009 where she has been active ever since fundraising for the cause as a committee member and as a donor herself. She served as a trustee and later president of the board of the acclaimed New York based non-profit Art in General from 2012-2020. Roya also served as a trustee at the prestigious School, The Lycée Francais de New York as Chair of the development committee and co-chair of the Strategic plan committee from 2002 to 2011.

Prior to her support and promotion of Iranian art, Roya had a 20-year career in the Fashion Industry. The latest positions she held in that Industry were as the Vice President of Sales and marketing North America for the prestigious Fashion company Yves Saint Laurent from 1994-2000 and as Vice President Divisional Merchandise Manager of Women’s Designer, Eveningwear and Bridge collection at the Department Store Lord and Taylor from 1990-1994.

For her pioneering efforts to advance, support, and promote international education, she has been honored with the Women’s Global Leadership Award by the Institute of International Education and an Order of Academic Palms (Chevalier dans L’Ordre des Palmes Académiques) by the French Minister of Education.