Parvin Hakim (*1963 in Isfahan) received her Bachelor of Arts in Painting from the Faculty of Art at Azad University in Tehran in 1995. Since 1996, she has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in both Tehran and Isfahan, establishing herself as a consistent voice within the Iranian contemporary art scene. The desert margins of Isfahan and its surrounding landscapes serve as the central inspiration for her artistic practice. Her work—spanning painting, drawing, and photography—reflects a profound engagement with place, architectural heritage, and the diverse modes of life shaped by the arid climate. At one point in her artistic trajectory, she embarked on a visual study of the Jolfa neighborhood in Isfahan, a historic convergence point of Armenian-Christian and Iranian-Islamic cultures.
In recent years, her focus has shifted in response to environmental transformations, particularly the desiccation of the Zayanderood River. Her photographic work from this period reveals the contradictions inherent in contemporary urban life: movement versus stagnation, vitality versus melancholy, hope versus anxiety, presence versus absence. These tensions are rendered through a minimalistic visual language that captures fleeting signs, traces, and emotional residues within the urban fabric. Through this reduced aesthetic, Hakim articulates not only the psychological impact of ecological loss but also the silent, often overlooked demands of a city’s inhabitants. Her search is for essential visual markers that offer an intimate, distilled understanding of her native city.
In Vienna, she participates in the exhibition Verlassen, curated by Negar Hakim and Azadeh Hariri.