Nastaran Kamran

Nastaran Kamran is an Iranian visual artist and illustrator based in Iran. She holds a Master of Arts in Illustration from Ferdows Institute of Higher Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Carpet from the Art University of Isfahan. Alongside her academic training, she has developed her visual art practice through nine years of self-directed study. She has worked as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator for over ten years.

Her practice centers on the human figure to explore psychological states and the social, cultural, and environmental forces that shape lived experience. Working through improvisation and process-led image making, she allows forms to emerge intuitively in response to her surroundings. Figures in her work often appear outside fixed time and place, shaped by both internal states and external conditions.

Growing up within a socially restrictive environment has informed her critical awareness, particularly as a woman navigating patriarchal structures. While gender is present in her lived experience, her work addresses humanity more broadly, questioning systems of power, inequality, and collective vulnerability. In recent years, her practice has expanded toward nature and the more-than-human world, focusing on cycles of growth, decay, and transformation. Through the use of organic and overlooked materials, she reflects on interdependence and the fragile balance between human life and its environments.

Her work has been presented in group exhibitions in Iran and Europe, including Villa Kuriosum (Berlin), EXEMPLa München (Munich), Shirin Gallery, Negah Gallery, the Iranian Artists Forum Gallery, and Open Paper Tehran Art Fair.