Hayv Kahraman

Born in Iraq in 1981, Hayv Kahraman currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Fleeing Baghdad at age eleven, she relocated to Sweden with her family and the refugee experience became a catalyst for her practice. Kahraman studied graphic design in Italy at the Accademia di arte e design di Firenze in 2005. Kahraman’s technically diverse practice includes painting, drawing, object-making and performance. Her semi-autobiographical works have a strong focus on the migrant experience and violence against women, with references to the Italian Renaissance, Japanese woodcuts and Iraqi architecture. Kahraman has a fascination with geometry and symmetry, incorporating abstract patterns into her work.

Though gender and identity are consistent themes within Kahraman’s work, her practice is ever evolving in style and technique. Recent painted works have seen the artist experiment with the manipulation of the canvas itself. This sculptural element is reminiscent of the traditional Iraqi method of weaving ‘Mahaffa’, a type of handheld fan and speaks to the artist’s memories of childhood. Examining the marginal spaces of diasporic life, the artist looks to contest and renegotiate boundaries found in the social and political third space between Western and Middle Eastern culture. Kahraman uses her singular visual vocabulary to portray the migrant experience, one that lacks constancy while embracing multiplicity. Kahraman uses the beauty of her paintings to tell horrifically brutal tales, particularly those of women victimized within their own culture. Repeating female imagery over and over allows her to build an army of women, to restore their agency as a collective so that it may be felt individually. Using the body as the last remaining site of resistance, the artist reclaims control of the female form.

Kahraman has held solo exhibitions at numerous institutions including at Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA, USA (2025); Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA (2024); The Mosaic Rooms, London, UK (2022); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA, USA (2022); Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, HI, USA (2019); Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Honolulu, HI, USA (2019); Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA (2017);  and The Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE, USA (2016), as well as at The Third Line, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY, USA; and Pilar Corrias, London, UK.

Kahraman has also exhibited work in numerous group exhibitions including at Hawaii Triennial 25, Honolulu, HI, US (2025); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA (2023); Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany (2022); The British Museum, London, UK (2021); The Barjeel Collection, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France (2017); Thessaloniki Biennial 5, Thessaloniki, Greece (2015).

Her work is featured in various international collections including The Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, USA; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL, USA; The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL, USA; The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK; The Barjeel Art Foundation Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; MATHAF: Arab Museum of Modern Art Doha, Qatar; Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH, USA; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, USA.