Kamran Yousefzadeh, known as Y.Z. Kami is one of the late generations of Iranian modernist painters. Like the artworks of many contemporary artists, his paintings cannot be attributed to a specific style. In his artworks, Kami advances conceptual and representational approaches in parallel. But the bridge connecting these two distinct approaches is the mastery of mystical concepts and aspects, which perhaps originates from the artist's belonging to philosophy.
Although his connection with painting is older than philosophy and goes back to the artist's childhood, Kami's mother was a painter and provided the background for her son's interest and familiarity with this art. After finishing high school in 1974, Kami went to the United States and studied philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. A year later, he left for France and pursued his studies in the same field at Sorbonne University in Paris. After returning to the States, Kami studied filmmaking at the Paris Cinema Conservatory for a while and had several film experiences, including a documentary film about Ahmad Fardid. At the same time, he became professionally involved in painting, permanently settled in New York, and devoted himself to art.
His first solo exhibition was in 1984 at L.T.M Gallery, New York. After that, he exhibited his artworks in prestigious and significant art centers of the world, such as MoMA (New York), Long Beach Art Museum (California), Holly Solomon Gallery (New York), and Herbert F. Johnson (New York), Parasol Unit Foundation Museum (London), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Gagosian Gallery (London and Rome). In 2007, he participated in the 52nd Venice Biennale with the painting "In Bayt Al-Maqdis." The exhibition of his artworks in 2016 at Gagosian Gallery 6 was also welcomed by the great critics of contemporary art. YZ Kami's paintings were also exhibited in Tehran Reservoir Gallery in 2017.
Spiritual and mystical concepts are the central aspect of Kami's paintings. His abstract artworks are indebted to Iranian architecture and structures such as the dome and Shamsa. In these paintings, small surfaces and words are arranged like bricks and rotate around a central point. He uses turquoise, brown, and white color options to execute these paintings. The two collections "Domes and hands of worshipers" and "Endless worships" are among the most prominent collections of YZ Kami's artworks. Pakbaz writes about this: "Kami expresses his attachment to Iranian culture, Eastern mysticism, and Nizami, Rumi and Jami poems in the combination of architectural forms and poetry and with a special style in the use of oil paint." Kami's portraits are also one of his best-known artworks. He has a completely realistic approach to creating this range of his artworks. The main feature of these faces is their fading. This performance method induces a feeling similar to introversion and bewilderment as if the figures are meditating. The quality evidenced by his interviews gradually emerged in his artworks and intensified over time.