Reflecting on her early experiences as an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, Hayv Kahraman’s new body of work examines the ways in which colonial practices in the field of botany continue to perpetuate hierarchical structures and gendered metaphors within the natural world and, by extension, sociopolitical contexts. The artist experiments with marbling her own handmade linen surfaces using the ebru technique, which translates as ‘the art of clouds’. Inhabiting their intentionally irregular landscapes, Kahraman’s defiantly anonymous female figures traverse and challenge grid-like systems designed to impose order and identification. In Kahraman’s hands, the technique of marbling becomes an act of defiance, a means of building alternative architectures of refuge and resilience.

Hayv Kahraman is currently exhibiting at the San Diego Museum of Art, ICA San Francisco and Frye Art Museum, Seattle. Kahraman will also participate in Hawai’i Triennial 2025.

Her work is included in numerous institutional collections including The British Museum, London; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami amonst others.