Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi (Iranian, born 1981) explores the notion of duality, which is closely related to her multifaceted identity as an Iranian American immigrant.
Her paintings function as metaphors for the complexities that emanate from such polarized cultural experiences and reflect an interest in the fusion of visual conventions of Western abstraction and Persian Art. Ilchi places an emphasis on the ornamentations of “Tazhib”, or the art of illumination. The resulting synthesis of Persian and Western artistic practices evokes allegories of intrusion and invasion, moving beyond the personal and referencing the historical and contemporary sociopolitical conflicts.
Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi was born in 1981 in Tehran, Iran and currently lives and works 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 has been awarded residencies at the Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, The Jentel Foundation, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. Her work has been featured in Hyperallergic, Blouin ArtInfo, The Washington Post, the Washington City Paper and DC Modern Luxury. She has exhibited in New York, Switzerland, Washington DC and Winston- Salem, NC and her work is included in several private and public collections.