Safwat Saleem is a multidisciplinary artist who gives visibility to immigrant narratives, with a focus on cultural loss resulting from assimilation. Safwat’s body of work weaves together themes of preservation, desire to belong, resistance and joy as an immigrant father raising a multiracial child in the American Southwest.

Humor is a critical element of his work, and he uses satire as a tool to challenge perceptions. His work aims to bring to the foreground points of view that have been obscured historically by hegemonic power. Safwat’s practice ranges from graphic design, illustration and writing to film and sound.

His artwork has been shown at the Open Data Institute at Cartagena Data Festival (Colombia); Puffin Cultural Forum (Teaneck, New Jersey); TED Talks (Vancouver, Canada); and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (Scottsdale, Arizona), among other venues. Safwat was named a TED Fellow (2015, 2013), a three-time recipient of the Rocky Mountain Emmy (2022, 2021), an eleven-time recipient of the American Advertising Award (2022, 2021, 2015), a Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards Finalist (2017), and a Arizona Commission on the Arts Research & Development Grant recipient (2023). His work has been featured in NPR/KJZZ, Fast Company, Grazia, Southwest Contemporary, Topia, Boing Boing, and Phoenix New Times, among other platforms.

Safwat believes in using his art for social impact and has collaborated with non-profit and change-making organizations like Fine Acts, 18 Million Rising, RUN AAPI, SAADA and TED. He is the founder of the former online Pakistani music magazine Bandbaja, which advocated for using music as a socio-political tool for activism and change.

Safwat lives and works in Phoenix, Arizona.