CURATOR'S CORNER

This collection of six textiles was crafted using natural dyes that mirror the variety of greens seen in night-vision imagery. Made through a collaboration with female artisans from San Agustín Etla, Oaxaca, between 2024 and 2025, the works incorporate a series of images linked to surveillance technology on the northern border. 

Employing the felting technique, these textiles blend traditional craft with contemporary themes of conflict that impact many communities across Mexico—conflicts seldom represented in the conventional "folk art" usually promoted in the context of Mexican cultural nationalism.

Florencia Rothschild at Wishbone Gallery.

Florencia Rothschild was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and now resides in Coatepec, Mexico. Her creative practice explores existential themes related to the human condition, the body, and its (de)construction. Through fragmented, contorted forms that transform into new potential bodies, she questions concepts of individuality and subjectivity, advocating for a fluid collective understanding of identity. Rothschild incorporates architectural elements into her work, reinterpreting these freely to create a dialogue between structure and organic forms. Materiality—particularly ceramics—plays a vital role in her research, serving as a sensorial, intellectual, emotional, and symbolic medium that shapes a body of work both embodied and poetic.

          

Jess Riva Cooper at IOTA Studios.

Jess Riva Cooper is a Toronto-based ceramic artist whose haunting sculptures and installations explore themes of ecological reclamation, transformation, and the fragile boundary between life and decay. Her work often depicts human figures overtaken by wild foliage, fungi, and invasive plants sprouting from their orifices, embodying the intersection of nature reclaiming human forms and built environments. Inspired by Western art traditions and Yiddish folklore, her pieces blend the venerable with the chaotic natural world to challenge notions of human dominance. Cooper’s practice includes repurposing fired ceramic fragments to reflect nature’s encroachment and reshaping of artificial structures.

Furniture by Hamilton Homes at Smokestack Studios + Gallery.

Hamilton Holmes debuted two new OXALINO collectible furniture pieces that blur the line between art + design. Every piece of OXALINO furniture tells its own story. Each form is transformed into a canvas, its surface—top, bottom, front, and back—entirely hand-painted in a gesture that is both methodical and expressive. Using an oxidizing solution on tannin-rich wood, the artist coaxes a chemical reaction that transforms every brushstroke into a living pattern. Slowly, line by line, the surface becomes enveloped in a rhythm of marks until the piece is wholly adorned. The ritual concludes with a veil of whitened oil, a finish that draws out the natural grain and reveals a delicate moiré effect, as if light itself were woven into the wood. What remains is more than furniture: it is sculpture, surface, and story intertwined—high design where craft, chemistry, and imagination merge.

     

Bruce Cochrane at Vessels + Sticks Gallery.

Bruce Cochrane is a distinguished ceramicist, renowned for his innovative approach to form and mastery of high-temperature firing techniques. His work demonstrates a profound understanding of volume, proportion, and the structural qualities of pottery, often merging organic and sculptural elements with a refined, minimalist aesthetic. Central to his practice is a tactile engagement with clay; Cochrane manipulates the material to evoke warmth and intimacy, creating pieces that invite both touch and contemplation. 

Cochrane’s firing methods are integral to his artistic vision. Known for his use of wood and gas firing techniques, he achieves distinctive textures and unpredictable colour variations that elevate his work. The interplay between clay and fire is essential to his process, allowing the medium’s inherent qualities to shape the final piece, resulting in work that feels both timeless and contemporary. Through these techniques, Cochrane has cultivated a signature style that is tactile, dynamic, and deeply attuned to the materiality of clay.

Influenced by the rich global history of ceramics and architecture, Cochrane’s work reflects these diverse inspirations, with his making process embodying their influence in both form and concept.

Michael Polubiec at Vessels + Sticks Gallery.

Michael’s art practice investigates the material and conceptual possibilities of clay at the intersection of architecture and geology. Using the idea of the reconstituted architectural fragment as a framework for inquiry, he explores the evolving interplay between architecture and natural systems, uncovering relationships that unfold across temporal and geological scales.

Through a process-based approach to hand-building and form-finding with extrusions, he works with clay bodies, glazes, and firing techniques to create forms that celebrate both the structural capacity of the ceramic medium and its potential to reflect geological processes. These forms contemplate the aesthetics of permanence while embracing their inevitable weathering by nature and time.

Amy Bowles at Paul Petro Contemporary Art.

Amy Bowles is known for her small-scale ceramic sculptures which often explore totemic and narrative themes. Over the years, she has exhibited her work in galleries including Paul Petro Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, where she regularly shows ceramic sculptures, paintings, and drawings. Her artistic practice has evolved but remains centered on creating small, detailed works. She appreciates the intimacy and accessibility of small objects, despite dreaming of large-scale art. Bowles' work is characterized by a blend of craft, narrative, and personal history, combining traditional ceramic techniques with contemporary themes. Her pieces often appear as multiples or small groups of figures, embodying characters and stories that invite viewers into imaginative worlds.

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