Kamran Samimi

Drawn to natural ephemera such as stones, wood, pigment, and land, Kamran Samimi approaches his subject matter and materials with both curiosity and reverence. Informed by a strong sense of place, his artistic process examines the relationships and tensions between human vs. non-human ancestors via the lens of his multi-cultural identity (Iranian/ Norwegian raised in rural Hawai'i).

Samimi labors to create a sense of balance, seeing his work as an offering of beauty to a world full of injustice and devastation. His practice is indivisible from his worldview, informed by Zen Buddhism and Sufi Mysticism's emphasis on the direct experience of the natural world. Thus, his process is both penitent and whimsical as his hands move in accordance with the hands of Nature: simultaneously dismantling and reforming, controlled and compassionate.

Samimi's work is in the permanent collection of the Sharjah Art Foundation, Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, and the Hawai’i State Foundation of Culture and the Arts. Samimi was the recipient of the 2024 Artists of Hawai’i Best In Show Award and holds an BFA in Printmaking and an MFA in Print Media and Sculpture from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.