Can a new world rise from the ashes of a fire? Hayv Kahraman’s fifth solo exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery, Ghost Fires, traces this paradox. The artist weaves the direct impact of Los Angeles wildfires on her family with her experiences of displacement and war trauma as a refugee, delivering a deeply personal yet universal artistic manifesto.
Amid the chemical smells lingering in her home post-fire, Kahraman recalls a line from Etel Adnan’s The Arab Apocalypse while searching for the book: “The sun is dangerous, it can burn and kill you. But the sun is also life.” This idea merges with her refugee experience. Like migrants burning their fingerprints to evade border police, Kahraman seeks the right to become invisible. Her works reference Arab mythology’s Phoenix—a female bird reborn from ashes—and fire-born jinn, touching both ancient spiritual quests and today’s harsh realities.
In the wake of the fires, marked by depression and disconnection, Kahraman’s paintings had already begun filling with “ghost fires” months prior. For years, she has been obsessed with the question, “How do you paint the wind?” Wind represents movement, change, and life, but also fire. This paradox forms the core of her art. These “ghost fires” evoke memories of war, enabling her to reconnect with the dislocation of her refugee experience.
Witnessing cacti in her garden bloom wildly after the fire, Kahraman realizes that destruction can also herald life and the start of a new world. She notes that imagining a new world is possible only by keeping her eyes open to the ghosts. This exhibition stands as proof of confronting those ghosts and channeling them into creative energy.
Exhibition Details:
Venue: Jack Shainman Gallery, New York City
Dates: On view through October 25, 2025
