Roya Akhavan was born in Tehran, Iran in 1953. Akhavan graduated with a BFA in Art from Simmons College in Boston in 1974. She also attended the Arts Students League in New York City and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris.

Akhavan’s expressive work employs repetition and pattern as an instrument for metaphor. She builds upon traditional Persian painting techniques, creating a fresh visual aesthetic and engaging fragmentation as a style. Breakthrough (2013), for example, is a sculptural installation constructed in colored glass, which juxtaposes void and possibility, and fragility and stability.

Akhavan has had several solo exhibitions, including Nexus in 2009 at Leila Heller Gallery, and at Galerie Transversale in Paris in 1998. Her work has appeared in a number of group exhibitions worldwide, such as at Art Dubai and Art Abu Dhabi.