A repeated journey back to the self

In the course of contemporary Iranian painting, there are works that, instead of engaging in dialogue with the external world, turn inward transforming introspection into a space for revelation. Rayka Milanian’s “Again” series belongs to this category: paintings that are neither objective representations of nature nor purely abstract. Rather, they can be seen as visual narratives of dwelling in silence.

According to Honar online’s Visual Arts Group, from her earliest collections in the 1990s to her most recent works, Milanian has developed a personal visual language where color, texture, and omission are fundamental elements of expression. She approaches painting as a process, which gives her work a temporal and evolving quality. Through repeated layering, washed and erased pigments, and constant returns to the surface of the canvas, she stages an inner dialogue between presence and absence.

Milanian withdraws clarity from forms, pushing them toward the edge of disappearance. In this haziness lies a kind of aesthetic of memory, a memory not recounted, but summoned. This quality distances her work from mere descriptive narration and brings it into the realm of painting as visual thought.

In terms of color, her palette often consists of translucent grays, muted ochres, and misty greens. Combined with semi-transparent and scratched surfaces, these hues convey a sense of time and erosion as if each piece is the result of the material’s long-lived existence. In this sense, Milanian’s paintings carry a latent time, sedimented in their layers of pigment.

Her work reflects a blend of introspective feminine aesthetics and phenomenological sensitivity within the context of contemporary Iranian art. Rather than relying on narrative or figurative expression, Milanian returns to the experience of perception and touch. The human presence in her works is implicit and subdued as if the figures have dissolved into the memory of the image. This gradual erasure invites the viewer to participate in reconstructing the image, much like memory relies on imagination to rebuild the past.

In contrast to many contemporary trends, her works consciously distance themselves from conceptual or political expression. Instead, they inhabit the realm of intuition and visual silence. This approach places Milanian among artists who see art as a space for contemplation and inner discovery.

From this perspective, the title of her recent collection, Again, refers not to repetition in the sense of simple reproduction, but to a return to the self, to memory, and to painting as a lived experience. Each work in this series reminds us that, in Milanian’s art, nothing truly ends; every layer marks the beginning of another.

For her, painting is a continuous act of being an experience that forms in silence and persistence, much like how memory settles in the mind. Ultimately, her works become quiet conversations between the eye and the inner world where images are not made to be seen, but to be present.

Three decades of uninterrupted work have shaped Milanian into an artist who sees painting not as external expression, but as internal writing. She has found a personal balance between material and sensation where colors speak in silence.

In her visual world, everything gently fades away, until disappearance itself becomes the very essence of presence.

Shaparak Vafaee (Art Critic)