
Sara Abbasnejad (b.1989, Abadan, Iran) is a visual artist and researcher based in Canada. Her practice unfolds through photography, video, and archival materials, exploring questions of visibility, absence, and marginalized narratives—particularly concerning women’s histories within oil cities and industrial landscapes. Abbasnejad works with still image, moving image, and found materials to investigate how personal memory, speculative storytelling, and unofficial archives can challenge dominant historical narratives. Her recent projects engage with overlooked spaces and silenced stories from Abadan, Iran—her family’s hometown and a city historically shaped by the oil industry. Through these works, she examines how gender, labor, and power intersect in places where extractive economies and global histories meet. Before relocating to Canada, Abbasnejad worked as a photographer in Iran, with her work exhibited across Iran and Europe. Her projects have explored themes of representation, identity, and erasure, often questioning the reductive portrayals imposed on women within Iranian and broader Middle Eastern contexts. She received her Master of Fine Arts from a joint program between the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (Norway) and the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan (Italy). Her work has been presented internationally through exhibitions, film screenings, and publications. Abbasnejad continues to develop her artistic research through visual storytelling, archival engagement, and feminist methodologies, with a focus on uncovering forgotten spaces and the social histories embedded within them.
