September 20 – October 26, 2025
Visiting Artist Fedra Yazdi’s paintings can be seen in the Project Space. Fedra is an artist in exile, and The Weight of What Was: Missing Homeland Series is part of a five- part project. Her work is infused with her search for belonging, with images of transition and isolation. Drawing on her cultural roots, she merges two aesthetics: that of Persian gabbeh rugs and Suzani textiles that traditionally symbolize the warmth and comfort of home, and also the aesthetics of Western-influenced abstraction and its broader, borderless narratives. Her canvas preparations are painstaking, and the paintings—in acrylic, gouache, and ink—are meticulous and multi-layered.
Like the Persian gabbeh, each piece tells a story. Childlike figures evoke nostalgia, and bright colors symbolize hope, resilience, and yearning for a home. In the painting Unfamiliar Gravity, large rectangles frame a clear and organized memory of another world, a beloved and abandoned life once lived with pets, homes, and trees. Outside the rectangles, faceless figures are pulled from their roots and float in a tangle of fractured memories. In the painting Where Goodbyes Land, the same faceless figures navigate a winding path, and camel-like creatures become a metaphor for the long road to a new life.
More at fedrayfinearts.com