The Iraqi-Kurdish artist Hayv Kahraman grew up as a refugee in Sweden, feeling an unshakeable sense of otherness for as long as she can remember. To unravel this complex and isolating anxiety, she researched microbiology and immunology to create a singular visual perspective on “decolonization of the body and nature.” Her oil-on-linen paintings at Houston’s Moody Center for the Arts examine the gendered migrant experience through the female form—sometimes contorted, sometimes delicately stylized, sometimes a decorative object come powerfully to life. —Lucy Horowitz