Biography
Samira Abbassy was born in Ahwaz, Iran in 1965 and moved to London,
UK as a child. After graduating from Canterbury College of Art, she be-
gan showing in London.
She moved to New York in 1998, where she helped to set up the Eliza-
beth Foundation for the Arts, and the EFA Studio Center.
Her work has been included in shows at the Metropolitan and the British
Museum, and is in private and public collections worldwide, including:
the Metropolitan Museum, British Museum, the British Government Art
Collection, the Grey Art Gallery at NYU, the Burger Collection, the
Donald Rubin collection (Rubin Museum, NY), the Farjaam Collection,
Dubai, the Los Angeles County Museum and the Afkhami Collection .
During Abbassy’s thirty year career, her work has been the subject of
twenty gallery solo shows in London, Dubai and New York.
Her fellowships include: Yaddo fellowship in 2006 and 2022, and
Saltonstall in 2017.
She has been awarded two NYFA awards in 2007 and 2018, a Joan
Mitchell award in 2010 and a Pollock-Krasner in 2014. Abbassy was
also nominated for the Anonymous Was a Woman award in 2018.
In 2019 her work was included in the 26th Venice Biennial presented by
Heist gallery London.
Abbassy has also worked as an educator in many educational institutions
in the UK and the USA, some of which are: Hunter college, Penn State
and the University of Virginia, where she was the artists in Residence in
April 2012.
In 2023 her work will be included in Women Defining Women in Con-
temporary Art in the Middle East and Beyond, Curated by Linda Ko-
maroff, Los Angeles County Museum, and at the Candice Madey
gallery, NY, and a solo show with Advocartsy in LA.