Richard Heller Gallery is pleased to announce Farshad Farzankia's first solo exhibition at the gallery, entitled Welcome to America (a fitting title, as this is Farzankia's first solo exhibition in the United States). Welcome to America presents a new body of Farzankia's work, ranging from canvases to installations of painted wood sculptures. Exploring simple forms and colors, Farzankia's work deals with what is vital in human life: childhood memories, cultural traditions, and family. His work poses questions about who is seen and why, and what objects hold meaning across borders (both physical and metaphorical). In his paintings, Farzankia stages scenes of daily life, inviting the viewer to experience them as a voyeur. His work includes icons of personal importance to build a lexicon of meaning through symbols: cameras reference the artist's love of film and direction, shoes become understood as symbols of migration, and red tulips reference iconic posters from the artist's early childhood in Tehran. Farzankia's paintings initially call attention to the artist's graphic design credentials but the staying power and continuing interest comes from the subtleties in the line work and color layering that become apparent after extended viewing. About the artist: Farzankia was born in Tehran in 1980 and, at the age of six, moved to Denmark with his family (where they received asylum status as refugees). Now a permanent resident of Copenhagen, Denmark, he is well-known for his use of bright colors in his large-scale paintings, sculptures, mixed-media, and installation work. Farzankia holds a bachelor degree in Visual Communication in Copenhagen, Denmark, and worked for fifteen years as a graphic designer in the field of poster and music design before he retired and started painting full-time. Farzankia's work is in the permanent collections of: Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst, Ishøj, DK; Carlsberg Art Foundation, Copenhagen, DK; and The Progressive Art Collection, USA.