Kabul, b. 1995

Amin Taasha was born in Bamiyan province in 1995. When he was just 5 years old his family moved to Kabul, because of the fear of the Taliban. At the age of 5 he learned about the craft of carpet making after moving to Kabul. In 2007 he started painting in high school and then in 2009, he officially studied painting and calligraphy at the Institute of Fine Arts in Kabul. During his education at the institute, he attended workshops with Australian artist Khadim Ali, which had a profound influence on his practice and he began to incorporate aspects of abstraction and miniature painting into his artworks. His career as an artist took a sudden unexpected turn in 2012; he was invited to participate in DOCUMENTA -13’s international project at the National Gallery of Afghanistan. Parts of his artworks were misunderstood and drew the attention of the authorities, leading him to be intimidated at gunpoint before being blacklisted from exhibiting his work. This ban led him to seek opportunities to travel abroad, and in the following year he received a scholarship to study in Indonesia, moving first to Semarang in Northern Java, before settling in Yogyakarta to study at the renowned Indonesia Institute of the Arts (Institute Seni Indonesia), where he did his degree in Fine Art and exhibited both domestically and internationally, such as in the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10), QAGOMA, Brisbane, Australia, Tokyo Art fair, Japan, the 4th Dhaka Art Summit - Bangladesh,Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland Art fair, New Zealand, Documenta13, Afghanistan, ECO Cultural Institute, Iran, Indonesia, Canada, Germany, Italy, etc.