Feruz Temirov

Feruz Temirov (b. 1978) is a master of Uzbek miniature painting, born and based in Bukhara — one of the ancient Silk Road cities of Central Asia, long famous for its scholars, monuments and artisans. He works in the Bukharian line of the Persian miniature tradition, painting intricate, jewel-like compositions drawn from history and literature: Silk Road caravans, the scientists and travelers of the medieval Islamic world, the Tree of Life, lovers, hunting scenes and games of polo.

Unusually, he came to the craft through the university rather than the workshop. Raised in a family of history, literature and music teachers, he entered the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts at Bukhara State University on his father's advice, studying there from 1994 to 1999, and chose miniature precisely because of its ties to history and literature. He went on to teach the subject at the same faculty for eight years, and learned to render trees, flowers, animals and architecture at very small scale the way every miniaturist has — by copying the medieval schools of Iran, Herat and Bukhara, and the masters Kamal ud-Din Behzad and Mahmud Muzahhib. Where most practitioners of this craft apprentice into it, Temirov is a scholar of it as well as a painter.

He paints on Samarkand paper, made from the inner bark of young mulberry branches and burnished with stone until it takes a silken sheen — the support Persian miniatures were made on for centuries, preferred over parchment for being lighter and easier to store. The sheets he uses are still made by the old method. Working with brushes of natural fiber on paper no larger than a letter page, he mixes his pigments across the centuries: watercolor, tempera and gold gouache alongside modern acrylic.

He works from his own gallery in the old city of Bukhara, a stop for tourists and visiting diplomats, and in 2019 was one of four master craftsmen chosen to represent Uzbekistan's craft traditions at the United Nations Office in Vienna. "It is a great achievement and a great happiness for me," he says, "if the miniatures I create will please not only modern art lovers but also future generations."

Recognition:

• United Nations Office at Vienna. One of four Uzbek master craftsmen selected to represent the country's craft traditions at the Navruz celebration, before more than a thousand diplomats and representatives of international organizations — March 2019
• International Trade Centre, Ready4Trade Central Asia. Completed and certified — one of 21 artisans of 40 selected participants to finish the EU-funded programme — 2020–2022
• Bukhara State University, Instructor of miniature painting, Faculty of Fine Arts — 2002–2009

Selected Exhibitions:

• Art House SF, "Persian Miniatures from the Silk Road," San Francisco, USA — 2025
• Solo exhibition, Brussels, Belgium — 2025
• WUK and Atelier Mitte 7, "Festival of Uzbek Culture," Vienna, Austria — 2019
• Vienna Stock Exchange, "The Long Nights of Interculturality," Vienna, Austria — 2019
• "Uzbek Miniature", France — 2017, 2018, 2019
• "Ladya — Zimnyaya Skazka", national crafts fair, Moscow, Russia — 2016, 2017, 2018
• "Euro Asia", St. Petersburg, Russia — 2016
• "Inter-Yuvelir", jewelry and crafts fair, Sochi, Russia — 2016

Temirov's miniature paintings have been placed with private collectors through Art House SF in the United States (California, Washington) and Canada.