Yashar Samimi Mofakham

Yashar Samimi Mofakham (Persian: یاشار صمیمی مفخم; born in 1979 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian curator, visual artist, author, archivist, and art collector. He is recognized for promoting Iranian modern and contemporary art internationally.

Samimi Mofakham was born into an artistic family; his mother, Hengameh Mofid, is an Iranian dramatist, and his father, Kambiz Samimi Mofakham, was a theatre director, scenographer and puppeteer. He often works in collaboration with his partner, Tarlan Rafiee.

Career

Artistic career Samimi Mofakham began his professional career as a visual artist in 2001 when he participated in a group exhibition in Tehran. Since then, his paintings and prints have been showcased in numerous exhibitions across Iran, Italy, the UK, the USA, France, Austria, Denmark, Armenia, and Dubai. His works are included in prestigious institutional collections, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the British Museum, and the Ducal Palace of Mantua.

Alongside his work as a visual artist, he has served as a theater scenographer and received awards in this area. Additionally, he was twice selected as an award-winning artist by the British Art Medal Society.

He symbolically represents contemporary political issues in Iran—especially those he has personally witnessed and experienced—through his artworks.

Curating & Writing Samimi Mofakham started his curatorial career with Selfdom: A Personal Project in 2010 in Tehran. This show presented self portrait works by contemporary Iranian artists reflecting on their identity and place in modern Iran.

In 2013, he co-curated the "Calling Project" with Iranian curator Tarlan Rafiee and British curator John Phillips. Over 30 renowned Iranian and British artists were included, and the exhibition traveled between Tehran and London.

He has also served as the artistic advisor for two exhibitions at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art: the exhibition A Retrospective of Farideh Lashai, curated by Germano Celant, and the exhibition Lions of Iran by Parviz Tanavoli.

In 2020, in collaboration with Tarlan Rafiee, he curated an exhibition titled "Trost der Liebenden" (Solace of Lovers) at the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Austria. The exhibition showcased Qajar-period works of art collected by Albert Joseph Gasteiger Khan alongside contemporary works by Iranian artists, including Parviz Tanavoli, Jazeh Tabatabai, Reza Bangiz, Farah Ossouli, Narges Hashemi, Mazdak Ayyari, and Khosrow Sinai. A companion book with the same title, co-authored with Rafiee, was also published by the museum.

In 2008, Samimi Mofakham and Rafiee founded the Bread & Salt Projects, dedicated to archiving and documenting modern and contemporary Iranian art.

He has been also invited as a speaker at events hosted by prominent institutions—including the British Museum (on the late artist Farideh Lashai), the Iran Heritage Foundation (on Persian modernist art), the Victoria & Albert Museum (on contemporary Iranian art), and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (on historical–cultural ties between Iran and France).

He explores the cultural-historical and political issues of Iran in his writings and curatorial projects by focusing on the early modernism in Iran (19th century–Qajar era) through to the late modernism (Pahlavi era). Historically, he traces the trajectory that today’s Iran has followed, examining it as a cultural and social process over the past century. Parviz Tanavoli’s Exercise Writing: 50 years of Iranian Pop Art, 2016, with Tarlan Rafiee, Shahrivar Gallery, Tehran, Iran Parviz Tanavoli’s Universal Icons: 50 years of Iranian Pop Art, 2016, with Tarlan Rafiee, Shahrivar Gallery, Tehran, Iran Plants: Recent works by Parvaneh Etemadi, 2017, with Tarlan Rafiee, Dastan Gallery, Dastan Oustside, Tehran, Iran. The Multiplicity, Gallery Dastan, Tehran, 2017 Karnameh; Visual Culture of Iranian Children, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, 2016 Iran Print -01, 2019, Meem Gallery, Dubai, UAE Solace of Lovers: Trost Der Liebenden, 2020–2021, with Tarlan Rafiee, Tyrolean State Museum, Innsbruck, Austria