Sara Rahbar

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Sara Rahbar (born 1976) is an Iranian-born contemporary artist living in New York City. She works with photography, sculpture and installations, turning personal memories into art about pain, violence, nationalism, and belonging.

Rahbar was born in Tehran and left Iran in 1982 during the revolution and the early war. Those experiences shape her work. She studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology (1996–2000) and later at Central Saint Martins in London (2004).

Her best-known work is The Flag Series (2005–2019), in which fabrics and objects are reworked into collages that form versions of the American and Iranian flags. The series explores questions of national belonging and the mixed meanings of flags as symbols of both pride and conflict.

Her art is in major museums, including Centre Pompidou, the British Museum, and the Davis Museum at Wellesley College. In 2025 she received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship.