Sara Rahbar


Sara Rahbar is an Iranian-born contemporary visual artist. Her work ranges from photography to sculpture to installation, all of which reveal and transform the artist's personal experiences and are intimately autobiographical. Her work explores concepts of nationalism, separation and belonging - driven by central ideas of pain, violence and the complexity of the human condition. Compelled by an instinctual obsession to piece together and dissect, her approach is reflective of her need to deconstruct her emotions and memories. She is based in New York City.

Biography

Rahbar was born in 1976 in Tehran, Iran. In 1982, Rahbar and her family left Iran in the beginning of the Iranian Revolution and the early stages of the Iran-Iraq War, These experiences left many traumatic memories that have influenced her work.
Rahbar studied at Fashion Institute of Technology from 1996 until 2000 and in 2004 she continued her education at Central Saint Martins [College of Art and Design] in London.
The first body of work that created international recognition for the artist was the Flag Series, in which traditional fabrics and objects are reworked as collages that form various incarnations of the American and Iranian flag, exploring ideas of national belonging, as well as the conflicting role of flags as symbols of ideological and nationalistic violence.
Rahbar's work is in various public museum collections including the Centre Pompidou, the British Museum, and at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, among others.
Rahbar was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship in 2025.

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions