Bessma Khalaf (born 1978 in Baghdad, Iraq) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Oakland, California. She utilizes Photography, video, sculpture and performance to explore the boundaries of landscape, place, and image. While employing processes of degradation such as (burning, smashing, shattering, melting, defacing, eating, regurgitating, etc.)

Khalaf earned her B.A. from San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, and M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA. Her works have been exhibited at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY; Steven Wolf Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA; Gallery Four, Baltimore, MD; 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA and the ISE Cultural Foundation, New York, NY. Khalaf has been the recipient of a Murphy Cadogan Fellowship and the Vision From The New California Award in addition to a residency at the Kala Art Institute. Her work has been featured and reviewed in publications such as Zyzzyva, Artforum, the San Francisco Tribune and Baltimore City Paper. Khalaf's studio is located in Oakland, CA and she is a curatorial committee member at Southern Exposure.