Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi at Hemphill

HEMPHILL will host the exhibition, HEDIEH JAVANSHIR ILCHI: Everything became nearness and all the nearness turned to stone, opening on Friday, November 11, with a reception from 6-8pm. The exhibition will remain on view through December 23, 2016.

It’s as if I’m pushing through massive mountains
through hard veins, like solitary ore;
and I’m so deep that I can see no end
and no distance: everything became nearness
and all the nearness turned to stone.

I’m still a novice in the realm of pain,---
so this enormous darkness makes me small;
But if it’s You--- steel yourself, break in:
that your whole hand will grip me
and my whole scream will seize you.

-Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours, 1905

The esoteric connotations of Rilke’s poem encapsulate the inherent mysticism found in the work of Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi. Both Rilke’s poetry and Ilchi’s imagery have the power to incite the alchemy of the mind. He implements each word with the fullest intention, however small. Like Rilke’s words, Ilchi’s brush strokes are surgically applied, exquisite in execution and commanding in form. Her Iranian roots inform these patterns, called Tazhib, or the art of illumination, used to adorn the margins of historical books. They reference a culture long-oppressed by internal and external forces and also nurturing of deeply beautiful traditions. These patterns, born of tradition, exist amidst the lyrical chaos of poured paint, which she projects across the surface without control. This kind of “action painting” is distinctly Western, and lays the foundation for each composition. Once the paint dries, a topography forms, at once familiar and strange. It beckons Ilchi to search for herself in the peaks and valleys of paint. This binary sense of identity propels her to articulate a vision that reconciles all the things that define her. She can be everything and nothing at all; nearness and stone.

Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi was born in 1981 in Tehran, Iran and is currently living and working in the Washington DC area. Ilchi received a BFA with honors from the Corcoran College of Art + Design in 2006 and an MFA in Studio Art from the American University in 2011. She is currently an artist in residence at Arlington Arts Center, Arlington VA and has recently been awarded residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, The Jentel Foundation, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. She has exhibited in New York, Switzerland, Washington DC and Winston-Salem, NC and her work is included in several private and public collections. Everything became nearness and all the nearness turned to stone is Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi’s debut exhibition at Hemphill Fine Arts.

HEMPHILL was founded in Washington DC in 1993. The exhibition schedule features modern & contemporary art in all media by artists ranging from emerging to mid-career to modern masters.


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For More Information Contact:
Caitlin Berry
HEMPHILL Fine Arts
1515 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
202.234.5601
caitlin@hemphillfinearts.com
www.hemphillfinearts.com