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. == Curated exhibitions ==