Hayv Kahraman. Iraqi Artist

Dance

Iraqi artist Hayv Kahraman produces highly graphic drawings using Sumi ink on brown paper. Her wide stylistic references range from Japanese and Arabic calligraphy art nouveau, Persian miniature and Greek iconography.
Her impeccable illustrative renderings create stunning but also unsettling, minutely detailed images which prevent us from looking away from tragedies such as rape and honour killings, forcing us to reflect on things that we would otherwise refuse to see.
Of late, Kahraman has moved on to work in a larger scale and on canvas, painting flat patterned areas contrasted with expressionless faces, highly rendered in Renaissance inspired techniques. The artist has turned her attention to more mundane forms of oppression in a series of works focused on the ways women are percieved in society.
There's more on the artist's site

Toilette

Yellow Scarf

Domesticated Marionettes

Red Dress

Folding Large Sheet

Green Dress on Sofa

Domesticated Marionettes

Red and Black on Sofa

Falconry

Domesticated Marionettes

Mevlevi Sema

Turqoise Open Arms

Dressmaking

Bird Watchers

Pink Tears

Peacock

Heads on the Plate

Sew