April 15–May 31

Roshanak Banoo Hooshmand (b. 1933, Tehran, Iran) started painting for the first time 10 years ago at the age of 82. Over the last decade she has been remarkably prolific and ambitious, creating a vibrant body of work that is deeply reflective of a lifetime of experience, introspection, and devotion to the wisdom found in ancient Persian culture. Inspired by poets such as Jalal Al-Din Rumi and Hafiz Shiraz, whose verses encourage learning from the natural world, embracing the present, and enacting the divine through love and devotion, Hooshmand’s paintings celebrate the sensuality of color, emotional truths, and direct self-expression.

Though self-taught, her paintings show the influence of a range of classical and modern art historical precedents. Her “direct from the tube” approach to color is similar to Fauvists such as Henri Matisse, while her playful use of mixed pictorial perspective has analogies in Persian Miniature painting as well as the neo-cubist techniques of contemporary painter David Hockney. In addition to natural forms and scenes drawn from memory or observation, Hooshmand often works in a purely abstract mode creating loose geometries that resemble textile patterns, vases and other decorative motifs that may include poetic verses in Farsi inscribed on their surfaces.

Like the great poets she admires, Hooshmand’s art is an emotional channel for an inner spirit deeply engaged with the circumstances of her surroundings. Through painting, she transmutes this unique perspective into an offering—the world anew and full of possibilities—a blazing spring. Roshanak Banoo Hooshmand currently lives in Tysons Corner, Virginia.