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Samira ABBASSY (b.1965, Ahwaz, Iran) is based in New York. Abbassy emigrated to London UK in 1967, studied at the Canterbury College of Art before moving to New York City to co-found the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in 1998, where her studio is based and holds a lifetime tenure position. Multiple grants and residencies have taken her around America and beyond. Yet, every day she continues her practice in a small studio in midtown Manhattan at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, which she co-founded in 1998.
Abbassy’s work has been shown globally and acquired for private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the British Government Art Collection, Los Angeles County Museum, the Burger Collection, the Rubin Museum (New York), the Farjam Collection (United Arab Emirates), the Devi Foundation (India), the Omid Foundation (Iran), the Grey Art Gallery’s New York University Collection, Bowdoin College Museum of Art (ME), Afkhami Collection and Brattleboro Museum (VT). Her fellowships include: Yaddo in 2006, 2022 and 2024, and Saltonstall in 2017, two NYFA awards: 2007 in drawing and 2018 in painting, a Joan Mitchell in 2010 and a Pollock-Krasner in 2014, and nominated for Anonymous Was a Woman in 2018.