Safa was born in Alexandria, Egypt. Moved to Australia in 1979 with family, and lived in Perth WA for just over twenty years. After finishing school and winning the year 12 Art Prize, he started exhibiting in Perth, Fremantle, Broome and regional WA.
In 2001 he moved to Melbourne to pursue and further an Artistic career, exhibiting at Colin St Gallery in the city and in the Dandenong Ranges at the Wise Possum Nature Gallery. Safa started to show his works in the community annually at the Camberwell Rotary Art Show from 2003 - 2015 as well as other art shows in Victoria. He was also a member of the Victorian Artists Society taking part in seasonal and annual exhibitions. He is also a member of the online Gallery 247, regularly exhibiting at the Moony Valley Art Show. In 2016 he made a return to exhibiting solo in Melbourne at the Hawthorn Town Hall Gallery’s Community Arts Project. Then in 2017 he started a Batchelor of Fine Arts Degree at the Victorian College of the Arts, specialising in printmaking and graduating in 2019.
2020 saw a complete sea change with the move to Queensland, first to Mackay for six months then completed the move to the desired destination, Cairns in January 2021. In January 2022 Safa had his first solo exhibition at the Tanks Art Centre, with the title Endangered to Extinct, paying tribute to Australian species lost to extinction. Continuing to work along the theme of birds and nature is the current exhibition: Fragile.
In 2024 I made the decision that birds in North Queensland needed more exposure in my work and so I held my third solo exhibition at Crate 50 simply entitled: Birds.