KAMROOZ ARAM

Aram’s paintings explore the ornamental potential in abstraction, while challenging the notion of ornament as superfluous form. His sculptural works evoke the display strategies of museums, especially those which house so called decorative arts. His recent exhibitions often function as works in their own right. Combining painting, sculpture, collage and exhibition design, he creates an interdependence between object and display, in an effort to reveal the significance of design and architecture in affecting the interpretation of art objects.

Kamrooz Aram was born in Shiraz, Iran and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received his BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2001 and MFA from Columbia University in 2003. He is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards, including the Abraaj Group Art Prize (2014), the Carla Fendi Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome (2024); and the Guggenheim Fellowship (2025).

Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include: Domestic Compositions, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2025); Privacy: An Exhibition, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2022); Un Object, Un Geste, Galerie Mitterrand, Paris (2021); Lives of Forms: Kamrooz Aram and Iman Issa, Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture, Belgium (2021); The New Arabesque, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India (2021); Arabesque, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2019); An Object, A Gesture, A Décor, FLAG Art Foundation, NY (2018); FOCUS: Kamrooz Aram, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX, USA (2018); Ancient Blue Ornament, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA, USA (2018); Kamrooz Aram, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Hales Gallery, NY, USA (2018); and Ornament for Indifferent Architecture, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium (2017) amongst others.

Recent group exhibitions include: Whitney Biennial 2026, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2026); Angel of History, Schneider Art Museum, Ashland, OR (2025); Expodemic: Festival of Foreign Academies and Cultural Institutes, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (2024); Paraventi: Folding Screens from the 17th to 21st Centuries, Fondazione Prada, Milan (2023); Matisse Alive, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2021); Field of Vision, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, USA (2021); RELATIONS: Diaspora and Painting, PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada (2020); Some Mysterious Process: 50 Years of Collecting International Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2020); Desorientalismos, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain (2020); Fragile Frontiers: Visions on Iran’s in/visible borders, YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan (2019); The Crime of Adolf Loos, Axel Vervoodt, Belgium (2019); Jameel Prize 5, The Porter Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK (2018); and Le Musée Imaginaire, Pavillion Trab, Jaou Tunis, Tunisia (2018) amongst others.

Aram’s work is in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; M+ Museum, Hong Kong, China; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX; Cincinnati Art Museum, OH; Portland Museum of Art, ME; Art Jameel Collection, Dubai, UAE and Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE among others.

Courtesy Green Art Gallery