Azra Aghighi Bakhshayeshi, one of the famous artists in calligraphic painting, was born in Qom. Her father, Abdorrahim Bakhshayeshi, is a researcher in religion and Islam. She started her work with calligraphy, and based on Islamic calligraphy, she created contemporary works. Azra Aghighi is a graphic arts graduate with a distinguished calligraphy rank from the Iran Calligraphers Association. In 1992, she wrote her bachelor's thesis under Professor Nasrollah Afjei, which was the beginning of a new style of her works.
The first international appearance of this artist was in a group exhibition titled "Iranian Female Artists" in Kuwait. In 2005, she won the "Saadi Award" event in New Delhi. At the same time, she exhibited her works in a solo exhibition at the National Islamic University in the same city. A year later, she won another prize in the design competition for the symbolic statue of Tajrish in Tehran. Aghighi's works are kept in museums such as the British Museum and the Islamic Art Museum of Malaysia, the Saudi Art Museum in Riyadh, the Doha Museum of Islamic Art, and many art collections in the world. Over the past thirty years, her works have been exhibited in many shows in Tehran, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Malaysia, Kuwait, Oman, India, France, Switzerland, London, and New York. In addition to calligraphy, Aghighi has also been engaged in teaching at Azad universities, teacher training, and the calligraphers' association. In 2009, she published a book titled "Women Calligraphers” in Kalhor Publishing House, a reference book about female calligraphers.
Aghighi's calligraphic works are rich in script due to her calligraphic support. In her calligraphic paintings, she uses different aspects of Kufic lines; The combination of Eastern Kufic, Western Kufic, and early Kufic by using various degrees of pen width gives a unique and complex variety to her works. On the other hand, the first Qurans were written in Kufic script, and in this respect, there is a deep connection between the religious themes of this artist's works and her formal tools. In her thesis, Bakshayeshi examines the Kufic script. She also pays attention to Islamic and unitary concepts in arranging and planning her paintings. For example, many of her paintings are arranged around the central point, with words circulating around it, reminiscent of architectural arrangements in the patterning of domes. Her collection of works, exhibited in the Homa Gallery in 2020, is very different from the previous works. In these works, the artist has boldly put large black spots on a delicately calligraphic painting. Azra Aghighi Bakshayeshi says that her purpose was to make a protest movement, Protest against the activities that are going on in the artistic space of the society. She is inspired by Kalhor's Siyah mashq and has tried to create new works according to their form and philosophy.