I Paint Your Grace, I Paint Your Pain, I Paint Love, a solo exhibition by Persian-American artist Reza Derakshani, remains on view till 15 September 2025 at Leila Heller Gallery. This marks the artist’s first solo show in five years, unveiling a newly-exhibited body of work drawn from three of his major series: The Hunt/Riders, Day and Night/Fig Leaf, and Migration/Grey Zone.
Derakshani’s work bridges Persian visual traditions and contemporary expression, weaving personal memory, cultural heritage, and political reflection into a singular aesthetic language. In The Hunt, echoes of Persian miniatures and childhood recollections converge in elongated horse figures that speak to both freedom and pursuit, reflecting humanity’s search for meaning.
The Day and Night/Fig Leaf series meditates on duality – light and darkness, presence and absence – using lush garden imagery to evoke communal space and metaphysical longing. Expressive brushstrokes and metallic pigments create a tension between materiality and transcendence.
In Migration / Grey Zone, Derakshani turns to themes of displacement and identity. Informed by his movements across geographies and cultures, these works blend abstraction and figuration, marking a dialogue between Eastern memory and Western art history. Turtles and map-like fragments appear as symbols of endurance and homeland.
Through these interwoven series, Derakshani paints not only with pigment but with time, place, and layered narrative. I Paint Your Grace, I Paint Your Pain, I Paint Love offers a meditative space where personal and collective histories unfold through painterly rhythm and visual metaphor.
Location: Leila Heller Gallery, Dubai, UAE
Date: March 17 – September 15, 2025