Samira Abbassy was born in Ahwaz, Iran in 1965 and moved to Lon-don, UK as a child. After graduating from Canterbury College of Art, she began 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. Her work is currently on view at CANDICE MADEY Gallery.

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 Sal-tonstall 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.

Samira Abbassy Anastasis, 2021 Oil on birch panel 44 x 33 1/2 inches 111.8 x 85.1 cm, photo by Jeanette May.

Samira Abbassy Reincarnated Fears, 2016 Oil on birch panel 48 x 36 inches 121.9 x 91.4 cm, photo by Jeanette May.

Samira Abbassy Love & Ammunition II , 2014 Oil on birch panel 48 x 36 inches 121.9 x 91.4 cm, photo by Jeanette May.