What I Saw That You Didn’t, 2024 © Mehdi Dandi / courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery

Mehdi Dandi
Afterimage

March 7 – April 25, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 7, 2 – 5pm
Guided Tour with Mehdi Dandi: Saturday, March 7, 3pm
Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto

Stephen Bulger Gallery is pleased to present Afterimage, our first solo exhibition of work by Mehdi Dandi (b. 1988, Zanjan, Iran). Afterimage examines how photography, memory, and migration are closely connected. Rather than using the photograph as a reliable document, it is used as something fragile and moving toward collapse. Photography simultaneously records a situation while losing the context of the moment of seeing; what often remains is not the image itself, but its Afterimage.

Flowers in Gray, 2025 © Mehdi Dandi / courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery

The images used for this series are largely drawn from objects and anonymous figures encountered in public spaces, particularly the street, that refer to moments, narratives, and conditions often connected to a time before migration. These images were developed through a multi-stage process. Dandi’s practice begins with a straight photograph, which are hand-manipulated and re-photographed. Making multiple copies of the altered photograph, they are adhered in layers onto a stretched canvas. Using the technique of décollage, Dandi removes sections of images by cutting and tearing, to reveal underlying images.

The physical act of tearing the photographs is an important part of the production process. It reflects how memory can be disrupted or damaged, and how perception is often unstable. These hand torn fragments form patterns that reactivate the process of remembering. Migration plays a central role in this work. Distance in time and place makes it difficult to fully recall or hold onto memories from the past. Instead of clear memories, what remains are fragments, partial impressions that linger and slowly settle in the mind.

Chaos Secret, 2025 © Mehdi Dandi / courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery

Dandi’s works are a combination of the original photograph captured, and the process used to reflect the action of seeing. Far removed from their original state, his photographs offer moments of encounter that acknowledge loss, change, and the ongoing movement of memory.

Dandi received his BA in Graphic Design from the University of Applied Science and Technology in Iran. Informed by poetry, his practice approaches image-making as a way of thinking. His work uses the camera not simply to frame an object, but to attend to the quieter meanings that surround it, considering how images are perceived over time. Dandi’s relationship to his images intentionally unsettles the balance between subject and environment, allowing moments of tension and reflection to emerge. Through this process, the photograph becomes a space where observation and perception converge, and where visual meaning unfolds with a poetic sensibility.

But You Said You’d Wait, 2024 © Mehdi Dandi / courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery

Dandi’s work has been included in over twenty-five group exhibitions internationally, including presentations in Italy, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, India, and Iran. Dandi’s work is held in private and corporate collections.

Stephen Bulger Gallery
1356 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON M6J 1Y2
416-504-0575
info@bulgergallery.com

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Accessibility: The gallery is partially accessible, with a level entrance, an accessible washroom, wide and unobstructed pathways, and automatic doors at the entrance.