Hayv Kahraman was born in Baghdad, Iraq 1981, now lives and works in Los Angeles. A vocabulary of narrative, memory and dynamics of non-fixity found in diasporic cultures are the essence of her visual language and the product of her experience as an Iraqi refugee. The body as object and subject have a central role in her painting practice as she compositely embodies the artist herself and a collective.

Kahraman’s recent solo exhibitions include “Acts of Reparation," CAM St Louis; "Audible Inaudible," Joslyn Museum of Art, Omaha; “Sound Wounds," Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; “Gendering Memories of Iraq—a Collective Performance” which has been staged at CAM St Louis, Birmingham Museum of Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Duke University; “Reweaving Migrant Inscriptions,” Jack Shainman, New York; “Audible Inaudible," The Third Line Gallery, Dubai; “How Iraqi are you?," Jack Shainman, New York. Recent group exhibitions include “No Man’s Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection," Miami; “UNREALISM: Presented by Larry Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch," Miami Design District; “June: A Painting Show,” Sadie Coles HQ, London. Kahraman was shortlisted for the 2011 Jameel Prize at the Victoria and Albert Museum and has received the award “Excellence in Cultural Creativity," Global Thinkers Forum.