The Home by Mohammad Hossein Abbasi

The Art Gallery of St. Albert (part of the Arts and Heritage Foundation) is launching its newest exhibition in the beautiful main gallery space on December 4. The Home, by Mohammad Hossein Abbasi reflects the slow and difficult work that immigrants face while rebuilding their sense of self and belonging in a new land.

Abbasi’s paintings are windows to somewhere else. The distant horizon, sky and ground are abstracted and mysterious, inhabited by distortion and uncertainty. Despite that, this unknown place seems achingly familiar. Into this place, Abbasi inserts boats and simple shelters. Their forms are minimal, like those a child would picture. The boats are no sturdier than row boats, inadequate to face vast unknown waters and overwhelming waves.

Abbasi relocated from Tehran to Edmonton in 2021. ​“The journey I embarked on involved substantial changes in both geography and culture, leading to numerous challenges post-immigration, he says. ​“Adapting to new environments, customs and societal norms required resilience and perseverance. Overcoming language barriers and forging connections in a foreign land added complexity”, Abassi adds.

Abbasi’s The Home series has been evolving over the past three years. In this last sequence, the houses gradually return to the ocean, each one finding its place amid waves that are not just water, but currents of culture, memory and movement. These waves push and pull, question and challenge, asking the migrant: Where do you belong? How can you connect with the past, with the future, and with yourself?

The Home runs until January 31, 2026.

Events:

• • Reception and artist talk: Dec. 13 from 1 – 3 pm (talk starts at 1:30 pm) 
    
  • In-person tours: Dec. 11 at noon & Jan. 22 at 6:30 pm
  • Virtual tour: Jan. 14 at noon on Facebook Live