Studio Fellow: Hedieh Ilchi

Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi is an Iranian-American artist whose creative practice is a navigation of her multifaceted experiences as an immigrant. Her paintings provide a space where her two disparate histories come together to reflect on cultural traditions and notions of belonging.

By combining conventions of Western abstraction with conventions of Persian art, Ilchi explores contradictory painting processes and the ways in which they can be melded into a hybrid visual language. These pictorial clashes echo the erasure and distortion of cultural identities, evoking allegories of intrusion and invasion and moving beyond the personal to reference contemporary and historical interference.

Ilchi was born in Tehran, Iran and currently lives and works in the Washington, D.C. area. She received an M.F.A. in studio art from American University and a B.F.A. from the Corcoran College of Art + Design and is the recipient of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellowship, Charm City Fellowship, Zeta Orionis Painting Fellowship, Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Painting, and Bethesda Painting Award.

Ilchi has participated in numerous national solo and group exhibitions. Her work has been featured in publications that include “The Washington Post,” “Hyperallergic,” “Art Papers,” “Washington City Paper,” and “New American Paintings.” She has attended residencies at the Ucross Foundation, Millay Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Jentel Foundation, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Playa Summer Lake, Monson Arts, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Ilchi’s work is in private and public collections, including The Phillips Collection, The Federal Reserve Board, The Microsoft Art Collection, and the Carl M. Freeman Foundation. She is represented by Hemphill ARTWORKS Gallery in Washington, D.C. and is currently serving as one of the 2023-2024 McMillan Stewart Endowed Chairs in Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art.

Learn more at hediehilchi.com/