Aziz Art January2018

Hayv Kahraman
She was born 1981 is an Iraqi
artist. She primarily paints,
but also sculpts and sketches. Her
works reflect the controversial
issues of gender, specifically
concerning female identity in
relation to her experiences as a
refugee, and all issues that plague
her home country of Iraq. Hayv
currently lives and works in
California, United States.
Life and career
Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1981.
During the Iran War, Hayv spent a
lot of her time in the basement of
her uncle's house. Her relatives
would all huddle around candles
and play card games.While living in
Iraq, she attended the Music and
Ballet School in central Baghdad.
One night, her family packed their
car and hired a smuggler to take
them where it was safe. They had
reached the Stockholm Arlanda,
the airport in Sweden, and this is
when she became a refugee. She
then moved to Sweden at the age
of 11. She enrolled in music and
ballet classes, but decided to
leave due to the teacher's racism.
She began oil painting at the age of
12 and later had several successful
exhibitions in Sweden.She studied
at the Academy of Art and Design
in Florence, Italy. This is where she
met her husband, Anthony
Velasquez. Kahraman's artwork
depict the effects of war, and how
they affect women. Her wide
stylistic references range from
Japanese and Arabic calligraphy art
nouveau, Persian miniatura and
Greek iconography.
Works
War-aq, the Arabic word for playing
cards, is a very personal group of
her works. She combined the idea
of a scattered deck of cards with
the experiences of five million
displaced Iraqis. Migrant 11 is a
series of a contorted dancer that
refers to the deformation of the self
due to migration. This work relates
to her personal experience of
attending the music and ballet
school in central Baghdad. Migrant
3 is a self portrait of herself cutting
off her tongue to represent the loss
of language and communication
through her life experiences.