Los Angeles-based artist Hayv Kahraman (b. 1981, Baghdad, Iraq) explores themes of identity, memory, gender and exile across paintings and sculptures that present and represent the “colonized” female figure. She weaves, tears, patches, and reworks materials to create exquisite artworks that nod to a breadth of artistic traditions found in Europe and Asia, while questioning concepts of agency and corporeality. “Superfluous Bodies” will run concurrently with a sister exhibition of new work by Kahraman entitled “To the Land of the Waqwaq,” inspired by—and on display at—the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design.

Iraqi-born Kahraman fled to Sweden with her family after the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991), and later moved to the United States. She earned degrees from the Academy of Art and Design in Florence, Italy (2005), and the University of Umeå, Sweden (2006). Kahraman has exhibited her work in a number of group shows, and has had solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri (2017); the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska (2016); the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York (2016); the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California (2016); and The Third Line in Dubai, UAE (2016). She was shortlisted for the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Jameel Prize in 2011 and 2018. Kahraman was an artist-in-residence at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design from March 16-31, 2019.