Hayv Kahraman is a Los Angeles-based Kurdish-American artist. She primarily paints, but also sculpts and sketches. Her works reflect the controversial issues of gender, specifically concerning female identity in relation to her experiences as a refugee, and all issues that plague her home country of Iraq. She explores the victimization of women within their own culture, and the effects of their subjugation which causes them the most suffering in the midst of war. She paints on linen panels and depicts dark haired, pale skinned women and decorates her work with Islamic geometric patterns. Her influences range from Persian, Japanese and Italian Renaissance paintings. Her works juxtapose traditional Eastern and Western beauty standards.
She was born in Iraq in 1981. Her family fled to Sweden in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War. Hayv lives and works in California, United States.