The artist Ficre Ghebreyesus found painting to be “the miracle, the final act of defiance through which I exorcized the pain and reclaimed my sense of place, my moral compass, and my love for life.” Born in Eritrea in 1962, the teenage Ghebreyesus fled his homeland during the country’s war of independence and was a refugee in several countries before settling in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1997, he married the poet and writer Elizabeth Alexander (she later recounted their love story in her memoir The Light of the World). In 2012, at the age of 50, Ghebreyesus died unexpectedly of heart failure. He left more than 700 paintings, most of which were not exhibited during his lifetime. Oscillating between figuration and abstraction, his dreamlike works conjure memories, folktales, musings, and Eritrean culture, while his keen eye for color adds a complex aura of enchantment. Modern Art presents the artist’s first solo exhibition in the U.K. —Nyla Gilstrap