Samira Abbassy

Samira Abbassy was born in Ahwaz, southwestern Iran in 1965. Like many people from this region, she is Arabic rather than Persian. In 1967 her family moved to Britain where she was educated and studied painting at Canterbury College of Art. Abbassys career centered in London for most of the 1980s and 1990s, showing with Mercury Gallery in Cork Street, The Royal Academy, (M&G painting award1997), and numerous other galleries in Britain and Europe. She has taught & lectured on her own work in various colleges in & around London & NY. She currently shows with England & Co. gallery in London. Her work was acquired by the British Government Art Collection in 2002.

Inspired by Persian & Indian miniature painting tradition, as well as outsider art. Visually, Abbassys work reflects her cross-cultural heritage in a number of ways. She draws on the visual traditions of both Middle Eastern and Western art in a manner that is neither superficial nor eclectic, but rooted firmly in her belonging to both cultures. The recurring themes in her work aim toward a shared mythology and iconography that underlies both societies. She excavates through layers of often-contradictory cultural identity towards an understanding of her own background. ...

Abbassy studied painting at Maidstone, Canterbury & Birmingham Colleges of Art in the UK. Abbassys career centered in London for most of the 1980s and 1990s, showing with Mercury Gallery in Cork Street, The Royal Academy, (M&G painting award1997), and numerous other galleries in Britain and Europe. She has taught & lectured on her own work in various colleges in & around London. Her work was acquired by the British Government Art Collection in 2002.
In 1998 she moved to New York and set up in a studio at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, where she currently works. Abbassy has been professionally active with the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts since the early 1990s. As applications co-coordinator for EFAs grants program for individual artists, she helped shape the programs administrative structure & was an integral part of the genesis of the foundations EFA Studio Center program, in both program design and physical construction.
Since moving to New York Abbassy has had solo and two person shows in New York galleries, which include the Joan Prats gallery & Vernacular Press in Soho and the Skoto & Kathleen Cullen galleries in Chelsea. Abbassy has also been included in group shows: Mirror Image at the Islip Museum & Chan...