“I Found A Tunnel Behind The Closet In My Room”
Solo Exhibition by Ashkan Nejadebrahimi
OPENING DATE: May 16 2025 6 – 9 PM
ARTIST TALK DATE: May 30, 7 PM
EXHIBITION RUN: MAY 16 – JULY 4 2025
ARTIST STATEMENT: Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, and with a BFA from the University of Tehran, Ashkan Nejadebrahimi moved to Canada in 2021 and received his MFA degree from the University of Manitoba in 2023.
As a multi-disciplinary artist, his drawings, sculptures, and digital works have appeared in exhibitions in Iran and Canada. Ashkan has also worked with filmmakers, Video and motion media artists as video editor and collaborator.
Ashkan’s practice probes intersections and overlaps between imagination and reality in different contexts such as the connection between the Self and the Other, memory and nostalgia, and questioning the difference between original and replica.
EXHIBITION STATEMENT: This exhibition is the third part of the series of works after “Autopsy of the remains” and “Last night a DJ saved my life” that artist has created since his immigration to Canda.
In this body of work Ashkan is exploring the quality of mark making and the social, psychological and cultural motivations that affect it. This series has been shaped during artist’s research on subjects related to anthropology such as the routes of mark making through the history of development of humankind, language, and unconscious.
Ashkan’s new works employs technical aspects of surrealist automatism and abstract expressionism to tell a mythical story that binds with the real world. This series of works connect itself to the history of Iranian Art by choosing the material of paper not just as a surface for mark making but as an object that can endure the exhaust of time.
EXHIBITION ESSAY:
2025 Exhibition Essay by Ekene Emeka Maduka
I Found A Tunnel Behind A Closet in My Room
Characterized by a surge of expressive mark-makings in pastel watercolour tones, ink, and ballpoint pen
on paper, Iranian interdisciplinary artist Ashkan Nejadebrahimi’s exhibition I Found A Tunnel Behind A
Closet in My Room explores the tension between temporality and permanence. Subverting the visual
language of abstract expressionism, the artist navigates the interplay between imagination, materiality,
and the subconscious. This exhibition is both deeply personal and broadly resonant—reflecting on
memory, place, and transformation through time.
Having moved from Iran to Canada four years ago, Nejadebrahimi subtly gestures toward themes of
displacement. His works engage in a dialogue between lived experience and cultural memory, layered
through references to history and time. Even the titles of the works participate in this inquiry. In A
Displaced Shamsa, for instance, a sprawling sixty-by-sixty-inch collage draws its title from the Persian
word Shamsa (شمسه(, which translates to “sun.” The use of this motif—universally visible, geographically
unbound—suggests a poetic meditation on continuity and presence across time zones and continents.
Though divided by an eight-hour thirty minute time difference, the same sun rises over Iran and the
Canadian Prairies alike, linking disparate geographies through shared celestial rhythm.
Nejadebrahimi’s subtle play with language and abstraction reminds us of our interconnectedness while
simultaneously investigating the fluidity of culture and tradition. These are not fixed systems, but dynamic
and ever-changing—shaped by displacement, relocation, and the passage of time. His choice to work
primarily on paper not only emphasizes material sensitivity but also connects to a lineage of historical
practices. The paper becomes a vessel, carrying both memory and innovation.
This is especially evident in the artist’s process, which mirrors that of Persian rug-making: intricate
compositions developed on flat surfaces before being displayed vertically. By beginning his drawings on
the floor and exhibiting them on walls, Nejadebrahimi pays homage to a tradition of
transformation—where a utilitarian object becomes an aesthetic, symbolic, and cultural artifact. This
gesture reinforces his broader concerns with the evolution of meaning through context and form.
Beyond works on paper, the exhibition includes Persian Frankenstein, a two-channel video installation
featuring disjointed limbs and body parts rendered in dripping ink. These fragmented figures move
through bright, collage-based visuals set against a haunting, ambient soundscape with tonalities
reminiscent of Persian folk music. The bodily imagery evokes a tension between fragmentation and
wholeness, while the ink—a recurring material in Nejadebrahimi’s practice—serves as a bridge between
the physical and the imagined.
This connection deepens in the piece The Other Side, where swift, fluid strokes of black ink on acetate
conjure ethereal, ghostlike gestures. Displayed between pillars in the middle of the gallery, the acetate
forms a literal tunnel—mirroring the metaphorical one suggested in the exhibition’s title. This installation
invites the viewer to step into the artist’s interior world, transforming ephemeral thought into spatial
experience. In doing so, Nejadebrahimi reclaims the importance of dreams and wonder in our daily lives,
foregrounding the psychic as a legitimate space of meaning-making.
Altogether, I Found A Tunnel Behind A Closet in My Room marks a compelling evolution in
Nejadebrahimi’s practice—one marked by intentionality, experimentation, and emotional resonance. It
reflects a sustained exploration of abstraction, built upon foundations laid in his earlier work. In 2023,
after completing his MFA at the University of Manitoba, Nejadebrahimi presented Autopsy of the
Remains, an exhibition of large-scale ballpoint pen drawings characterized by spontaneous, expressive
gestures. That body of work served as a foundation—both materially and conceptually—for this current
phase.
Now, with the addition of collage, colour, and time-based media, the artist expands his inquiry into the
textures of identity, displacement, and transformation. Through a poetic fusion of medium and message,
Nejadebrahimi creates spaces for viewers to project their own memories, associations, and emotions.
The works do not demand singular readings; rather, they invite return. With each encounter, there is room
to discover something new—about the artwork, the artist, and ourselves.
-Ekene Emeka Maduka
ARTIST TALK DATE: May 30, 7 PM
EXHIBITION RUN: MAY 16 – JULY 4 2025
About aceartinc.: We are an artist-run centre dedicated to the support, exhibition, and dissemination of contemporary art. aceartinc. Presents five major exhibitions a year by contemporary visual artists. www.aceart.org
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