Since the 2010s, Kamrooz Aram has built his practice on dismantling the divide between ornament and fine art, and renegotiating the art historical hierarchies that privilege Western forms of abstraction above others. His paintings and sculptures do not simply cross categories; they probe the structures that enforce them. Born in Shiraz, Iran, Aram emigrated to the United States in the 1980s, where he found himself forced to come to terms with a multitude of identities imposed upon him. Categories, he discovered, do not merely describe identity—they invent it.  

Aram’s work has been displayed in numerous international solo and group exhibitions, most recently, the Whitney Biennial 2026 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). His works are included in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); M+ Museum of Contemporary Art (Hong Kong); Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia); and the Sharjah Art Foundation (United Arab Emirates), among others. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2025), and is represented by Alexander Gray Associates (New York) and Green Art Gallery (Dubai). Aram lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. 

Michael Chagnon is a museum curator specializing in painting and the arts of the book from the early modern Persianate sphere. He was appointed Curator at the Aga Khan Museum in May 2019, where he has curated numerous acclaimed exhibitions, including Rumi: A Visual Journey through the Life and Legacy of a Sufi Poet (2023), Hakan Topal: The Golden Cage (2022), Remastered (2020-21), and Ekow Nimako / Building Black: Civilizations (2019-20). Dr. Chagnon has previously held curatorial posts at the Brooklyn Museum, LACMA, and Japan Society, and served in curatorial capacities for exhibitions at New-York Historical Society and Asia Society Museum.