Amir Asgharnejad

Traces of the metaphoric connection between feet and ascendence is latent in our language: we follow in each other’s footsteps, we walk in the path of kins, and have big shoes to fill. This whimsical lingual association is the point of departure for Amir Asgharnejad’s Daddy’s shoes.

The exhibition makes the fifth chapter of Asgharnejad’s on-going project, Coming of Age in painting, my struggle, in which he depicts his own life in a freudian (and somewhat ironic) manner. Daddy’s shoes revolves around the relationship between Asgharnejad and his father, and narrates a story of two men of different generations, that grow up in radically different contexts, and that have problems understanding one another. The exhibition explores the potential cultural gaps that arise when a family has to leave everything behind and migrate to another country. How does one create a new life, each to their own and together? And how can one relate to each other’s trauma?

In addition to a new body of painterly works, the exhibition also includes sculptures and a new video work, that the artist has made in collaboration with his sister and artist, Anahita Alebouyeh. The video work will premiere at the opening at 19:00.
 
Amir Asgharnejad (b. 1985) is an artist, actor and comedian. He is born in Iran, where he spent his first years, until the family had to flee the country and settled in Norway, first in Trondheim, then Kristiansand. Asgharnejad has a MFA from Oslo Academy of the Arts. Since he debuted as a painter in 2019, his works have been exhibited at Agder kunstsenter, the Autumn Exhibition, BO and Arteriet.

The exhibition Daddy’s shoes has been made possible through the generous support of Fund for Sound and Image and the Art Council Norway.