Rivulets of abstract color, often vivid blues and greens, are punctuated by precise imagery in Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi’s painting and mixed-media work. The Tehran-born local artist’s show at Hemphill Fine Arts includes details derived from Iranian manuscripts and architecture, notably gilded gates and blue-and-white floor tiles. One piece is a pile of shattered tiles, signifying both personal and cultural loss.
Ilchi shows often in the area, but this impressive survey introduces some new wrinkles. A series of diptychs employs muddier, earthier hues that partly submerge outline maps of the Middle East. A series of paintings clusters blue-green leaf forms on fiery backdrops. The leaves echo the tree shapes in the show’s largest painting, a 10-foot-wide deluge of color that suggests a flood of memories.