Sep Foroutan

Biography

Sepideh Foroutan is both a cancer research scientist and visual artist whose work explores the intersection of science, emotion, and human experience. Her passion for art began in childhood, experimenting with oil paints, watercolor, pencil, and charcoal. Though her path eventually led to a PhD in cancer research, the longing for art never left her. The microscopic beauty she encountered as a scientist kept drawing her back to the canvas.

As an Iranian woman shaped by life in Iran, migration to Australia, and now the United States, Sepideh infuses her art with her layered experiences of resilience, displacement, and identity, expressed through her distinctive scientific lens.

Sepideh’s paintings have appeared on the cover of a scientific journals and have been exhibited in several group shows. Her unique approach to blending science and art has also been featured in Magnify Magazine’s STEM Arts Corner, where she was interviewed by STEM Sisters about her work and journey.

Artist statement

I carry two languages into the studio: the language of science, where I spend my days decoding cancer through data and images, and the language of longing, shaped by leaving Iran and never fully arriving anywhere else. My acrylic paintings are where these two languages meet.

I am drawn to the microscopic world — the forms of cells and molecules, the quiet power of technologies like immunotherapy — and translate them into visual forms that range from precise observation to emotional abstraction. My work seeks both the extraordinary beauty hidden in biological complexity and the evidence-based hope science brings to those living with cancer.

At the same time, I explore migration, memory, and identity — and the particular experience of being an Iranian woman who left, shaped by both struggle and resilience. Cells divide, travel, and rebuild, mirroring my own journey of displacement and becoming. In my paintings, the scientific and the personal dissolve into each other, revealing unexpected connections between healing, selfhood, and hope.

Exhibitions

  • 60BYSIXTYFOR60: End of Year Showcase Exhibition, RED Gallery, Melbourne, Australia (Dec 2023)
  • Group Exhibition, Mentative Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia (Nov 2023)
  • REDtrospective Group Exhibition, RED Gallery, Melbourne, Aaustralia (Dec 2022)


Publications


Journal Cover


Collaborations

  • Served as Scientific Expert for the Cancer ARt Project, called ‘Immunokru’ by Excite Science (Apr 2022)