Raw is Beautiful

The first time I encountered a work by Iraqi artist Hayv Kahraman, I did not leave the gallery until I was able to see every detail, and inspect the kaleidoscopic visions created by the superimposed wooden panels. I was taken aback by the raw beauty of the women Kahraman paints, from their hair swaying as if floating on water, to the silky skin of her plump nudes. Since then, Kahraman has become one of my favorite female artists, not only for her technique, but for the messages she convey's through her depiction of the female nude.

Intimacy is by far one of the most striking characteristics of her work. It is not only about the nudity of the women depicted, it is women being nude together. Kahraman's Pins and Needles series makes us think we have interrupted a moment of deep intimacy amongst women. As observers, we creep into the secretive world of female beauty, while her subjects comb each other's body hair and wax each other's mustaches, seemingly unaware of our presence but intimidating in their own.

The paintings are a manifestation of the pressures imposed on women to satisfy a standardized idea of beauty. Kahraman deals greatly with her understanding of the human body, how we perceive it and how we live in it. Her admiration for the human form is visible in the way she paints flesh, to the extent that even commonly perceived imperfections appear soft, and delicate.

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Pins and Needles

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