KIMIYA HASHEMI
Contemporary Iranian Artist
Painting · Mixed Media · Figurative Art · Persian & Arabic Calligraphic Abstraction
Based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
ARTIST PROFILE
Kimiya Hashemi is an Iranian contemporary artist based in Dubai whose practice spans painting, mixed media, abstraction, figuration, and Persian and Arabic calligraphic forms.
Beginning her artistic journey at the age of thirteen, Hashemi has developed her practice through decades of continuous studio work, long-term artistic mentorship, and contemporary art and digital design studies.
Her work explores themes of identity, roots, memory, belonging, displacement, loss, and transformation, often through richly layered surfaces where calligraphy, abstraction, texture, and the human figure intersect.
Her evolving visual language moves between abstraction and figuration, transforming written forms into gesture and allowing figures, letters, and material layers to coexist within the same pictorial space.
EDUCATION & ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT
Kourosh Shishegaran
Long-Term Artistic Mentorship — Approximately 8 Years
Hashemi studied painting and contemporary visual expression under renowned Iranian contemporary artist Kourosh Shishegaran for approximately eight years.
This long-term mentorship contributed to the development of her understanding of composition, contemporary painting, visual language, and artistic discipline.
Mehrdad Mohebali
Artistic Study & Mentorship — Approximately 6 Years
She subsequently continued her artistic development through approximately six years of study and mentorship with Mehrdad Mohebali, further developing her approach to contemporary painting, abstraction, materiality, and expressive visual language.
Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI)
Professional Studies in Digital Art
Hashemi expanded her artistic practice through professional studies in Digital Art connected with the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI).
DIDI’s academic and design framework has been developed in collaboration with internationally recognized institutions including The New School’s Parsons School of Design and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
This interdisciplinary experience expanded her engagement with contemporary visual culture, digital practice, and new approaches to image-making.
ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Hashemi’s practice is characterized by the intersection of painting, calligraphy, abstraction, figuration, and material experimentation.
Persian and Arabic calligraphic forms have played an important role in the development of her visual vocabulary. Rather than functioning exclusively as readable language, letters are fragmented, enlarged, layered, repeated, and transformed into abstract visual gestures.
Her recent practice increasingly introduces the human figure into this visual language. Faces and bodies may emerge through layers of paint, texture, and calligraphic forms, creating compositions that move between visibility and disappearance.
Her work frequently investigates the relationship between personal memory and cultural identity, particularly the invisible connections individuals maintain with their origins, histories, and experiences.
MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES
Hashemi works across a range of traditional and contemporary materials, including:
Acrylic · Ink · Oil · Fabric · Mixed Media · Metallic Elements · Persian & Arabic Calligraphic Forms
Layering is fundamental to her process.
Paint and materials are repeatedly applied, covered, scraped, removed, and revealed, allowing earlier stages of the painting to remain present beneath its final surface.
She often works directly on canvas without relying on a predetermined final composition, allowing each work to evolve intuitively through the physical process of painting.
SELECTED BODY OF WORK
LOST ROOTS
Lost Roots is an evolving body of work exploring roots, identity, memory, displacement, belonging, and transformation.
Within the series, figures and calligraphic traces emerge and disappear through layered surfaces. The concept of the “root” functions both as a connection to cultural origin and as a metaphor for the invisible memories and experiences carried throughout life.
The series represents an important transition within Hashemi’s practice, bringing together elements of her earlier abstract and calligraphic language with an increasing engagement with contemporary figuration.
CALLIGRAPHIC ABSTRACTION
Calligraphy represents a continuing thread throughout Hashemi’s artistic development.
Working with both Persian and Arabic calligraphic forms, she transforms language into a contemporary visual vocabulary.
Letters may retain fragments of linguistic meaning or become completely abstract through repetition, fragmentation, scale, and layering.
Through this approach, Hashemi explores the boundary between writing and painting, language and image, cultural memory and contemporary expression.
CONTEMPORARY FIGURATIVE PRACTICE
Hashemi’s current practice increasingly explores the human figure.
Rather than approaching the figure through conventional portraiture, she integrates fragmented faces and bodies into textured and abstract environments.
Calligraphic elements may pass through or become embedded within the figure, connecting the human form to questions of memory, language, roots, and identity.
This figurative direction represents an evolution of her established visual language rather than a departure from it.
Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI)
Professional Studies in Digital Art
Hashemi expanded her artistic practice through professional studies in Digital Art connected with the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI).
DIDI’s academic and design framework has been developed in collaboration with internationally recognized institutions including The New School’s Parsons School of Design and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
This interdisciplinary experience expanded her engagement with contemporary visual culture, digital practice, and new approaches to image-making.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Bedia Gallery
Solo Exhibition
Crossborders Art Gallery
Solo Exhibition
Galleres:
Nour art gallery
Hedonist art gallery
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
- Best Calligraphy Artist
- Dubai Global Conference
- Recipient of the Best Calligraphy Artist recognition on two occasions.
CURRENT PRACTICE
Kimiya Hashemi currently lives and works in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Her current studio practice continues to develop at the intersection of contemporary figurative painting, abstraction, Persian and Arabic calligraphy, and mixed media.
Through her evolving work, she continues to investigate questions surrounding roots, identity, memory, cultural belonging, transformation, and the relationship between what is visible and what remains hidden beneath the surface.
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Contemporary Painting
Mixed Media
Persian & Arabic Calligraphic Abstraction
Contemporary Figurative Painting
Large-Scale Works
Private & Corporate Commissions
Artistic Collaborations
LOCATION
Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Available for selected exhibitions, commissions, art collaborations, curatorial projects, hospitality projects, and private studio appointments.