Sam Samiee (b.1988, IR) is a painter, essayist and psychoanalyst in training based in Amsterdam, Berlin and Tehran. He is a winner of the Royal Award for Painting in 2016 and Wolvecamp Prize in 2018 and finished the Rijksakademie residency in 2015 and ArtEZ University of Arts and Design in 2013, where he was a lecturer of painting until 2020. Samiee synthesises his heavy research on art history, Persian poetry and psychoanalytic theories into a studio practice that employs painting in multiple registers. The characteristic of his installations as extended paintings is the break from the tradition of flat painting and a return to the original question of how artists can represent the three-dimensional world in the space of painting as a metaphor for a set of ideas. He employs a range of painterly attitudes from oil paintings to iPad paintings, figuration, abstraction, the break of the rectangular frame and usage of text among other methods. Recently Samiee’s work focuses on a period of painting that parted ways from avant-garde, with the emphasis on decorative modes of work, of artists such as Matisse and Bonnard.
Sam Samiee has exhibited internationally, recent solo shows include: When Hell Breaks Loose I’ll Tell You Your Legs Were Always on My Mind, NMAG, NL (2023), 175 Trials & Errors, Dastan Basement, Tehran, IR (2023), A Garden of Clouds, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, NL (2023). Samiee has exhibited his works at the 10th Berlin Biennale, at Kunstmuseum, the Hague; the Parasol Unit Foundation; Manchester Art Gallery; Art Basel Hong Kong; and Liste Art Fair, among other international presentations. Footnotes to Life, a monograph on his work awarded as a part of the Wolvecamp Prize for painting in 2018, has won the Best Dutch Book Design in 2020.
Samiee’s work is placed internationally, private and public. Public collections include: Akzo Nobel Collection (NL), Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (NL), DNB Collection (NL), Teylers Museum (NL).
Sam Samiee artist portrait (2019), photographed by Konstantin Gus.Education
2015 Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, NL 2013 BFA Painting, Fine Art Faculty, AKI AriEZ Academy for Art & Design, Enschede, NL 2013 Akkuh Heartpool Foundation, Hengelo, NL. 2010 Painting, Fine Art Faculty, Art University of Tehran, Tehran, IR 2006 Industrial Design, Art University of Tehran, Tehran, IR
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Wolvecamp 100 X Sam Samiee (duo), Museum Cobra, Amstelveen, NL
2023 When Hell Breaks Loose I'll Tell You Your Legs Were Always on My Mind, No Man's Art Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2023 175 Trials & Errors, Dastan Basement, Tehran, IR
2022 A Garden of Clouds, Kunstinstitut Melly, Rotterdam, NL
2020 Blush of the Soil, Dastan Gallery, Teheran, IR
2018 Love Gone Vagabond, the Intellect in Search of It, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, NL
2018 Casino Copernicus, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, NL
2018 Bedroom Posters. Art Basel Hong Kong, Dastan's Basement, Hong Kong, CN
2017 A Camp (curated by Sam Samiee), No Man's Art Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2017 A Camp. Curated by Sam Samiee. Dastan's Basement, Tehran, IR
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 through repetition, bradwolff & partners, Amsterdam, NL 2025 Art Antwerp 2025, No Man's Art Gallery, Antwerp, BE 2025 Nocturnals, No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2025 35 Years of Minds and Matter: From the Archive of Kunstinstituut Melly, NL
2025 What's your treasure?, Kazerounian Mansion, Shiraz, IR
2025 Neither Here, Nor Elsewhere, The Third Line Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2024 Untitled Miami Beach, duo presentation with Alan Hernández, NMAG, Miami, USA
2022 True Colors, Akzo Nobel at Kunstmuseum, The Hague, NL
2022 Can't We Just Get Along?, Gallery Stevenson, Amsterdam, NI
2022 No Man's Art Gallery Mexico City, MX
2022 Sites of Ruin, Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia, US
2022 Minetield Playground, duo exhibition with Fereydoun Ave, Hamzianpour & Kia, Los Angeles, US
2021 Soft Edge of the Blade, Frieze, London, UK
2021 A bit of Unruly Complexity, 17th Contemporary Istanbul, OMM Shop booth, Istanbul, TR
2021 The Two-Headed Horse, duo exhibition with Agnieszka Polska, George Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna, AU 2021 ARTO21 2021, Shanghai, CN 2019 Art Brussels, No Man's Art Gallery, Brussels, BE
2019 Here Comes Everybody, duo exhibition with Narcisse Tordoir, Emergent, Veurne, BE
2019 Ampersands. W139. Amsterdam, NL
2019 LISTE Art Fair. with Hoda Kashiha. Dastan's Basement, Basel, SW
2019 The Spark Is You. Group Exhibition, Curated by Ziba Ardalan, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, UK 2018 The Unfinished Copernican Revolution, "We Don't Need Another Hero", 10th Berlin Biennale. ZK/U Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik, Berlin, GE
2018 Robot Love, Campina Melkfabriek, Eindhoven, NL
2018 Oil of Pardis, Galerie BaliceHertling, Paris, FR
2017 The Painted Bird | Dreams and Nightmares of Europe, curated by Gijs Frieling, Marres House for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht, NL
Publications
2020 Footnotes to Life, with texts by Benno Tempel, Dr. Gohar Homayounpour, Dr. Sumayya Kassamali and Sam Samiee, publication for the Sam Samiee, the laureate of the Wolvecamp Prize for Painting 2018, Amsterdam, NL
2019 The Spark Is You. Catalogue of the exhibition of the Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, with texts by Dr. Ziba Ardalan, Oliver Basciano, Dr. Narguess Farzad, London, Netherlands
2014 The Sensory War. Catalogue of the exhibition of he 100th Year Anniversary of the World War I, with texts by Ana Carden- Coyne
Collections
Akzo Nobel Art Foundation, NL
De Nederlandsche Bank, NL
Gemeente Museum Den Haag, NL Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Collection, Amsterdam, NL Henk Pijnen-burg Collection, NL
Arshia Seradi Private Collection, UK
Kunsthalle Gevelsberg, DE Haleh Anvari Private Collection, London, UK
Awards
2018 Winner of the Wolvecamp Prize for Painting, HeArtPool Foundation, NL
2016 Winner of the Royal Award for Modern Painting
2014 Winner of the Buning Brongers Prize, Netherlands.
Stipends
2019 Mondriaan Fonds Bijdrage Publicaties
2016 Werkbijarage Jong Talent, Mondriaan Fonds voor Kunstenaars
2014 Mondrian Fonds for Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten
2013 ArEZ Scholarship for Non- European Students