Hadi Hazavei is an Iranian painter, teacher and researcher, born in Arak. In 1968 he graduated with a bachelor's degree in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Tehran. After that, he moved to New York and in 1972, and got his master's degree in painting from City College New York. Then graduated with a Phd in art education at Columbia University in New York. After that, he returned to Iran and began his educational activities as the head of the Department of Art History and Sociology at Farabi University. Two years after the revolution, he returned to the United States, where he painted in his own workshop and studied museology at New York University. In 1988, he returned to Iran and was employed at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran as a professor and director of the painting department, and worked as a consultant at the Museum of Contemporary Art. In addition to several articles in Islamic art, Hazavei has written a book on teaching programs for middle school teachers and a book on teaching to 4th and 5th grade of elementary art students.

He exhibited his works for the first time in 1963 in the hall of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Tehran, and 3 years later another exhibition was held in the same faculty. In 1964, he participated in two group exhibitions in Ghandriz Hall. Hazavei in the early years of his career was influenced by modern neotraditionalism and showed a clear interest in the Sagha Khaneh movement. But he gradually moved away from this process and formed his own personal expression. The first sparks of this change of taste appeared in the exhibition of 1966 in the Hall of the Faculty of Fine Arts, and his new stylistic features became coherent in 1968 at the "25 Years of Artistic Creation" exhibition in the Iran Bastan Museum. Hazavei held his first overseas exhibition at the Verkmeier Gallery in Paris after completing his Phd course. In the next periods of his career, he maintained his connection with the artistic tradition, but instead of using formal expressions and visual elements, he paid attention to the analytical aspects and logic of this tradition.

Ruyin Pakbaz writes in his critique of the first period of Hazawa's career: "I suppose this surrealist tendency or effect of the past in his works is merely imitation. In other words, it is a kind of obedience to trends. He has a completely unfamiliar perception of these issues and does not indicate his inner needs ... Moreover, his hesitation between surrealism and traditionalism reveals his lack of knowledge of the reality of artistic pursuits.” 

Mojabi writes about his recent works: "In his recent works, Hazavei exploited Iranian geometry, which used in Yazd mansion, mirror woks of Mazarat, reproduction and variety of tile designs, and in carpets and hand-woven designs in centuries, and with exceptional patience and delicacy reveals these similar, symmetrical levels in a combination of multi-layered light shades, which in this behavior is more like repeating a word to achieve inner meditation."