Samira Abbassy

Samira Abbassy (born 1965) is an Iranian-born British painter and draftsperson, of Arab heritage. Her work addresses issues of mythology, female deities, psyche, memory, and the diaspora. Abbassy lives in New York City, and previously lived in London.

Early life and education Samira Abbasy was born in 1965 to an Arab family, in the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan Province, Imperial State of Persia (now Iran). Her family moved to London when she was two years old, and she was raised in Kent.

She studied drawing at Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University) and then Canterbury College of Art (now Kent Institute of Art & Design), where she obtained a BFA degree in painting in 1987. She was affiliated with the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective. The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) awarded her a lifetime membership, in recognition of her work in developing the EFA Studio Program.

Abbasy's artworks are in public museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Grey Art Museum collection at New York University.