DUBAI.- Leila Heller Gallery is presenting 'I Paint Your Grace, I Paint Your Pain, I Paint Love', a solo exhibition of paintings by renowned Iranian-American artist, Reza Derakshani. A pivotal figure in the canon of contemporary art, Derakshani has established a legacy that spans decades, with works housed in major institutional and private collections worldwide (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; British Museum, London; Museum Gunzenhauser, Germany; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg). In this latest presentation, Derakshani presents a selection of never-before-exhibited works that engage with themes of memory, identity, and transformation.
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The exhibition features works from three of his celebrated series: The Hunt / Riders, Day and Night / Fig Leaf, and Migration / Grey Zone. Marking his first solo show in half a decade, these works offer a rare opportunity to experience the breadth of Derakshani’s artistic vision, where past and present converge in a thoughtful exploration of form, color, and narrative.
Fig Leaf/ Day & Night Series
The Day and Night / Fig Leaf series explores the dualities that shape human existence, light and darkness, presence and absence, ornamentation and ambiguity. These paintings weave together Persian metaphors of paradise, where lush garden imagery evokes communal gatherings and the afterlife. Derakshani’s expressive brushstrokes, bold colors, and luxurious metallic paints create a visual tension between materiality and transcendence, positioning his craft as both an aesthetic and spiritual endeavor.
Gray Zone / Migration Series
Through his Migration / Grey Zone series, Derakshani reflects on displacement, cultural identity, and modernity. Shaped by his movement across artistic and geographic landscapes, his work embodies a deep engagement with the Western canon. Despite encountering its masterpieces later in life, his artistic development was profoundly influenced by the rich cultural environment of pre-revolutionary Iran. His work blends abstraction and figuration to explore the fluidity of belonging, memory, place, and identity. The motif of the turtle, symbolizing migration and endurance, appears throughout his compositions alongside subtle cartographic references to Iran, reinforcing a nostalgic and contested relationship with homeland.
The Rider / Hunt Series
Derakshani’s The Rider / Hunt series was inspired by Persian miniature painting and poetry, and recalls the grandeur of medieval iconography while referencing his childhood in the mountains of northeastern Iran. Horses, a recurring motif, embody both physical and spiritual freedom, their elongated forms rendered in layers of intricate color. The hunt, ever-present in his compositions, is not merely a literal pursuit but a metaphor for the ceaseless human search for meaning, power, and transcendence. This series, as with his other work is deeply rootede in Persian artistic traditions while simultaneously engaging with broader personal and socio-political themes.
Derakshani’s ability to interweave historical symbolism with contemporary expression solidifies his position as a master artist. His work is an ongoing dialogue between tradition and innovation, personal history and collective memory. 'I Paint Your Grace, I Paint Your Pain, I Paint Love' invites viewers into a space where painting is both poetic and political, a site of beauty and existential contemplation.
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