Aatifi Afghanistan-Germany, b. 1965

Aatifi (born 1965) is a contemporary Afghan-German painter, printmaker and calligrapher. He was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He lives and works in Bielefeld, Germany. His works contain abstracted Arabian calligraphy and modern European influences.

After graduating as a master calligrapher early, he moved to Kabul in 1982. There he finished High School, opened a workshop shortly after and built a school for drawing and calligraphy. He then entered the Kabul University's Fine Arts Faculty in 1989 to become a painter. In the same year, he was awarded the Prize for Calligraphy and Composition by the Afghan Ministry of Culture and was awarded a second time the year after. In 1991, he was awarded first place by the artists group Hakim Naser Khesraw Balkhi. In 1992, he finished his studies in Kabul. Moving to Germany in 1995, Aatifi became a member of the Sächsischer Künstlerbund and worked as a stipendiary at Moritzburg Castle in 1997. He then got recognized by painter and professor Siegfried Klotz who offered him classes in 1997/98 at Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. In the late 1990s Aatifi moved to Bielefeld where he set up his studio to work and to create art to the present day.