Maryam Safajoo

Maryam Safajoo is a Persian American painter based in the United States and graduated with an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston. Her paintings narrate the stories of the contemporary situation of the systematic persecution of the Iranian Baha’i community after the 1979 Iranian revolution. She explores cultural behavior and responses toward violence and human rights violations to encourage conversations that challenge the lack of representation of ethical behavior, people and voices in our global consciousness while highlighting the necessity of freedom.

Her paintings narrate these stories which are a result of her conversations and interviews with the people who were near or in these actual events. Many of the incidents she depicts only exist in the memory of those who experienced them and have no pictorial existence. In many cases if visual records did exist, they have been confiscated by the Iranian authorities in raids of homes. Her depictions are often the first time these events have taken visual form. She records the details of this history.

She primarily works with oil on linen on small canvases and the details are often miniature in scale. Each of her paintings are thoroughly researched, are inspired by actual events, and show the beautiful aspects of those who have been persecuted by highlighting their steadfastness, powerful spirit, and love for humanity.