As a Persian/Iranian-American artist and recipient of a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts, Maryam Safajoo’s work is a testament to resilience, memory, and justice. 

Her paintings narrate the stories of the Iranian Bahá’í community’s systematic persecution after the 1979 revolution. Safajoo’s paintings function as visual ethnography, safeguarding the experiences of individuals denied representation. Her narrative paintings extend this testimony into a sustained and resonant practice of visual storytelling. 

Through exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world, she strives to give voice to those silenced by oppression. Safajoo’s paintings reside in the permanent collections of institutions such as The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Nobel Prize Museum, among many others, preserving stories of resilience and human rights for future generations. 

Please join the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum for Safajoo’s artist talk on Friday, September 18th at 6 PM in the Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center, Room 119. Be sure to check out Maryam Safajoo: The Dream of Freedom, which is on view August 6 - December 12, 2026.