Rahraw Omarzad was born in Kabul in 1964, Afghanistan, where he lived until September 2021. Omarzad is an artist, writer, activist, Professor at Kabul University and founder of the CCAA–Center for Contemporary Art Afghanistan in Kabul in 2004. The CCAA also includes a school of art, the Women’s Center for the Arts, where many of Afghan’s young female contemporary artists have been trained. In 1996, he played a vital role in the writing and publishing of the magazine Payam e Sulh. 

Omarzad is also founder and chief editor of the first Afghan art magazine, Gahnama and Hunar (2000-ongoing). His works are part of the permanent collection of the Asia Society Museum, New York City, and he has been awarded the Best Artist of Afghanistan by the Ministry of Culture and Information three times. He received a IFA Scholarship in Germany in 2006, and the CEC ArtsLink Projects Award in Washington D.C. in 2012.

He was among the artists in dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel/Kubul, 2012, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and he participated in international exhibitions including Things lost/Remembering the future, Ganges Art Gallery, 2017, Kolkata; Artists’ Film International, 5th edition, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 2014 (itinerant to Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires); Young Kabul Art, 2006, Leonhardi Kulturprojecte, Frankfurt; and Piccoli giochi lungo la via della seta (a viaggio nell’arte da Istanbul alla Cina), 2008, Fortezza da Basso, Florence.

Since 2012, Omarzad has been a member of the High Council of Arts, and since 2014, he has been Member of AFI–Art Film International curators, Whitechapel Gallery, London.