Born in Persia, Sabzi started painting at the age of twelve. Although encouraged as an artist by his parents and teachers, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Jundi Shapur before returning to his first love - art.

Sabzi's early works were primarily realistic, exploring the historical and cultural themes of his homeland. His departure from Iran during the Khomeini regime brought him to Germany and then the United States. This exile provided him the opportunity to explore new artistic influences.

Sabzi's subjects are mostly women – beautiful, graceful, taciturn and melancholy - reflecting love, mystery and solitude. His women are Madonnas, modern goddesses and martyred saints with elongated forms suggesting instability and internal conflict.

His paintings resonate both Eastern and Western philosophies. His rich Persian heritage provides him with ancient images, sentimental Persian themes and memories of innocence. Yet he draws from the Western influence of modernism: Klee, Cezanne, Matisse and Bonnard.

His debt to modernism, especially to Matisse, is irrefutable. Pale greens, yellows, purples and reds illuminate the settings and inspire the forms with unique inner vibrations. Though schematic, the treatment of the human face as luminous geometric planes is a profound statement of the artist's quest for spirituality.

An accomplished abstract painter, Sabzi's passion for the spiritual is represented in the open spaces, symbolism and intricate patterns that make up the backgrounds of his compositions; Sabzi juxtaposes the complex feelings, body language and attitudes of his predominantly female figures against a backdrop of shapes and forms in space.