Mehdi Oveisi’s paintings are, as he conceives them, visualizations of philosophical and spiritual questions. Working within a range of media, Oveisi’s works come off as a graduated accretion of materials, which collectively come together to shape a heart, a embodied figure, or something more formalist and abstract. What’s essential is that the overall impression of a work be constructed from many layers. Almost in the manner of developmental stages, this layering process becomes a kind of commentary on a work’s completed design. One can look at each gestural aspect of Oveisi’s works, every determination of color and shadow, as a sort of signature that speaks to the integrity of the whole. Oveisi’s Angel no. III demonstrates his painterly range. The outlines of figures—angels—in the picture concretize the spiritual exploration of an emotional world. Coloration is key to this journey. The contrast of yellow-gold against a sky-blue backdrop lends the painting an almost stylized quality. The angels depicted here are not intended to have the visionary reality of a theophany, but to be abstractions—literary symbols, even—mulled over in the subconscious depths of the artist’s mind.