Rahraw Omarzad, born in 1964 in Kabul, Afghanistan, is a prominent artist and a significant figure in the Afghan cultural landscape since the early 2000s. Following the return of the Taliban to power, he sought asylum in Italy in October 2021 and later relocated to Germany in January 2022, where he currently resides. Omarzad is a prolific author, having written numerous articles and a book.
Omarzad’s video artworks have been exhibited internationally, including at Documenta 13 in Kassel. His works are part of the permanent collections of the Asia Society Museum in New York City and the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin, along with several private collections.
Omarzad’s art exists at the intersection of politics, war, and personal experience. Through his creative endeavors, he has consistently expressed his opposition to war as a political construct. His protests against the Afghan government and Russian aggression led to his imprisonment for his artistic activities.
 
At the age of fourteen, Omarzad witnessed the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. As a means of artistic resistance, he began creating and publishing cartoons with pen and ink, which were disseminated through his friends in the artistic and cultural community. This activism resulted in his imprisonment and detention.
Omarzad graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Kabul University and taught there from 1991 to 1992 and again from 2002 to 2021. During the Mujahidin era, despite the country's deterioration due to civil war, he personally financed the publication of “Ayar” magazine in 1995, taking a bold stance against cruelty and injustice. He also played a crucial role in the publication of “Payam e Sulh” (Message of Peace) magazine in 1996.
 
In 1998, under the Taliban government, all forms of art, including music, cinema, painting, sculpture, and photography, were banned. In response, Omarzad launched “Gahnama-e-Hunar” art magazine, which included all the prohibited art practices and aimed to be a “window to the world.” This magazine was unique in the country at the time.
Beyond publishing, Omarzad combated the anti-art policies by creating free art courses for young Afghan refugees, encouraging both males and females to engage in art.
 
Following the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Omarzad founded the Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan (CCAA) in 2004. This initiative aimed to promote peace, justice, democracy, and civil society through art. In 2006, he established the only women's art center in Afghanistan to combat fanaticism, repression, and violence against women, promoting their empowerment as part of the democratization process.
From 2012 to 2021, Omarzad was a member of the High Council of Arts. In 2014, he joined the AFI Art Film International curators at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, and in 2016, he became a member of the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT).
Omarzad earned a Master of Arts degree from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) in 2017 with his project “Every Tiger Needs a Horse,” which was selected for a solo pilot.
 Upon returning to Afghanistan in 2018, he established the Studio of Contemporary Arts (SCA) at the Faculty of Fine Arts, where he introduced contemporary arts as a new subject.
In 2021, with a team of young artists, he founded the “Ostad Brashna” art training center.
 
Following the Taliban's resurgence in August 2021, with the support of Carolyn Cristove Bacargeive, Director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin, Omarzad evacuated to Italy. There, he created the second part of his project “Every Tiger Needs a Horse,” which was exhibited in the museum's “Artists in a Time of War” show. This project involved working with the Italian Army to create art using paint and dynamite on a military base. He also filmed a new video, “New Scenario,” in an underground bomb shelter in Turin.
During his residency, he conducted workshops at the Academy of Albertina in Turin, facilitating collaboration between students there and those at the Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan in Exile (CCAA in Exile), working on the “Crossing the Distance” project on forced migration.
 
Since 2022, Omarzad has been residing in Frankfurt and served as a guest professor at the Städelschule Frankfurt. Along with his students, he established the CCAA in Exile, based in Frankfurt.