Mia Rassam is a figurative artist based in California. She is dedicated to examining how bodies are shaped within social, religious, and cultural institutions, and how gender and sexual regimes impact bodily autonomy, historical representation, and personal identity. Utilizing self-portraiture and visual citation, Rassam illuminates how art history informs contemporary understandings of gender representation and performance. Drawing from her upbringing in the Catholic Church, she deconstructs canonical Edenic imagery that perpetuates a rigid heteronormative femininity. Employing art‑historical citation, détournement, humor, autobiographical narrative, and pathos, Rassam confronts personal encounters with objectification and misogyny while making space for levity, hope, and collective solidarity.

Rassam graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2024 with a B.A. in Art Studio and a B.A. in Communications. While at UC Davis, Rassam was Lead Director of The Basement Gallery, a student-run gallery within the Art Studio Department. Her awards include a Talent Prize in the 2026 Teravarna Portrait exhibition, an Honorable Mention in the 2025 SFVACC exhibition Surrealism, the Jeffrey Owyang Art Scholarship in 2024, a Citation for Outstanding Performance in 2024, and the UC Davis Undergraduate Studio Award in both 2023 and 2024. She currently works in the Bay Area.