Hani Mikiyas

Hani Mikiyas is a self-taught painter whose work focuses on the emotional inner worlds of women. With a background in social work, her practice draws from close observations of body language and the nonverbal ways emotion is held and expressed especially by women navigating hardship, caregiving, and social expectation.

Working primarily in acrylics, Hanna uses bold color and exaggerated form to create expressive portraits that reflect moments of self-dialogue and emotional complexity. Her figures often appear in states of stillness, smoking, curled inward, or gazing out capturing emotional realities that are often hidden.

In The Weight of Soft Things, Hanna’s work foregrounds the body as an emotional archive. Her paintings invite viewers into the space between what women show and what they hold, making visible the private labor of feeling.