January 19 – April 28, 2024

On Any Given Day II

Exhibition

Ontario

on any given day 2

Mariana Bolaños Inclan, Untitled. Cucharas, stoneware, and slip.

Event Info At A Glance

Price Overview: Free

Venue Overview: East Vitrines

Overview

Central to the Craft & Design Studio’s ethos is a commitment to broaden the dialogue around contemporary craft and design practice. For our artists and designers, method and meaning are not disparate; connections are made with the past and present and with an eye to the future. Harbourfront Centre Artists-in-Residence explore ideas of technology, identity and personal history, engaging with time-honoured materials and processes to respond to the world around and within them.    

On Any Given Day II introduces four of our newest Artists-in-Residence who bring their fresh outlooks by creating work that speaks to the complexities of engaging with creative practice. Their fluency and intent with materials, married to strong ideas, are encouraged in our Craft & Design Studios which are dedicated to supporting new perspectives that add to the expansive conversation within contemporary craft and design practice. 

– Melanie Egan, Director Craft & Design, Harbourfront Centre 

Part of DesignTO.

About Mariana Bolaños Inclan

Mariana Bolaños Inclan is a Mexican sculptor based in Toronto. She has been working with ceramics for over four years and exhibits her work regularly. She has been part of several shows in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Focusing on art with a social purpose, she works as a facilitator in community programs with children, women and newcomers around Toronto and the GTA. Bolaños studied visual arts in Mexico and obtained a Diploma in Fine Arts when she moved to Canada. She recently graduated from the Ceramics program at Sheridan College and was welcomed as an Artist-in-Residence in Ceramics at Harbourfront Centre in 2023.  

“A magnificent nopal grows in front of my mother’s house. Its flowers invite hummingbirds to eat and find refuge from the heat of the Mayan land. When I visit my mother and witness the birds feed, I think about their symbolism as messengers bring us stories beyond this world. I reflect on how our stories and beliefs have passed down generations. Indigenous communities created the beautiful and intricate trees of life to teach themselves the stories colonizers had imposed on us. I think about my own family, my Abuela, my mother, and I carry in our daily lives some of these impositions about domesticity and the meaning of being a woman. Around the kitchen, our three generations have interpreted and challenged these ideas in our ways.” – Mariana Bolaños Inclan

About Jiho Choi

Jiho Choi is a Korean jewellery designer and metalsmith based in Toronto. He graduated from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, majoring in jewellery design and metalsmithing. With a background in engineering, Choi brings a playful touch to his work, especially in his kinetic pieces. L.A. Pai Gallery recognized his talents at the 18th Annual National Student Jewellery Competition, and his creations have graced international exhibitions like the 18th Silver Triennial in Germany, New York Jewellery Week, and Korea Craft Week. Choi was welcomed as an Artist-in-Residence in Jewellery at Harbourfront Centre in 2023. 

“Brass was the first material I touched when I started jewelry making and metalsmithing. Since then it has remained my favorite medium. In my animal brooch series, I used brass to in contrast with silver. Brass is yellow and has a low value, whereas silver is white and a precious material. The contrast between these two makes each part stand out more.  Most of my pieces are kinetic – this requires high precision and to achieve this level of precision I often use a lathe. Brass is a good material for machining because it is soft and has high tensile strength, therefore it is also a good material to make my kinetic pieces from. I also make everyday objects with brass which is a commonly found material. In keeping with this simple material I use only basic metal fabricating techniques in the making process, such as sawing, piercing, bending, texturing and riveting.” – Jiho Choi

About Charlie Larouche-Potvin

Charlie Larouche-Potvin discovered glass at Espace Verre in Montreal, where he graduated in 2020. He quickly developed a strong passion for the glassblowing process, specifically Venetian techniques. Since his graduation, perfecting his understanding of the material has been his focus. Larouche-Potvin was part of the Fusion Program offered by Espace Verre from 2020 to the end of 2022. During this time, he worked for various established glassblowers all around Quebec. He also took classes with renowned glassblowers at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York and with Davide Fuin in his personal studio in Murano, Italy, where he had the opportunity to work as an assistant during the summer of 2023. He was an Associate-in-Residence at the Jam Factory in Adelaide, Australia in the beginning of 2023 and is now an Artist-in-Residence at Harbourfront Centre.   

Larouche-Potvin’s growing knowledge in the traditional venetian techniques allowed him to be finalist in the 2022 and 2023 RBC Award for Glass and the Prix François-Houdé from 2021–2023. 

“To grow as an artist, I entered an intimate relationship with the material. Glass is alive. By itself, it evolves and transforms. You must take care of it, listen to it and be attentive in its presence – otherwise it is impossible to know it. Through the making of objects inspired by Venetian traditions, I engage in a conversation with the glass. These delicate objects demonstrate all the whims and virtues of the material which little by little, the dance becomes more fluid. The finished product reflects the harmony of my relationship with the material and the choreography required to manufacture it. Each irregularity, whether in the shape, proportions, or in the making of these objects, testifies to a constantly evolving learning process. With repeated critical reappraisals of the works created from the Renaissance to the 20th century in Murano, Italy, I strive to push the boundaries of the medium. Where making functional pieces allows me to focus on the perfection of many aspects of my original designs, making more extravagant and ornamented objects allows me to narrate my own fantastic stories. While trying to bridge that gap between functional designs and extravagant artwork, three principles remain: authenticity, innovation and precision.” – Charlie Larouche-Potvin

About Sasha Shevchenko

Sasha Shevchenko is a Ukrainian, Tkaronto/Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist. Inspired by her experience as a Ukrainian person of diaspora, her practice bridges interests in sculpture, textile, archaeology and intimate ethnography. Combining contemporary and ancient story-telling methods, Shevchenko creates propositional spaces where tradition can whimsically extend into cultural futures. Her work has been exhibited at the Art Museum of the University of Toronto, Small Arms Gallery, Portland State University, the AGM and international online exhibitions. Shevchenko holds a BFA in Sculpture and Installation from OCAD University. Shevchenko was welcomed as an Artist-in-Residence in Textiles at Harbourfront Centre in 2023.

“This iterative installation reflects on imagination and fragmented origin as resources within the diasporic yearning for place. Stemming from the artist’s displacement from Ukraine, the work orbits a fragile central character that reflects the artist’s personal cultural journeys. Lyusterko, meaning “little mirror” in Ukrainian gradually emerges in the central print, the shifting textile, and ghostly objects – too old to remember, and too recent to understand. Lyusterko takes shape at the cusp of life and death, of presence and absence, relying on the viewer’s decision to acknowledge her existence. As a clumsy yet necessary being, she extends beyond Ukrainian folkloric tradition, and instead begins to collect new origin stories in an echo of the diasporic way of life. Through craft, haptic making, and the compassionate qualities of folk objects, Lyusterko becomes a tribute to resilient hope, to trans-locality, and to the persistence of making.” – Sasha Shevchenko

Venue

East Vitrines

A series of display cases located within the Craft & Design corridor

Indoors

Wheelchair Accessible

235 Queens Quay W

Toronto ON M5J 2G8

Keywords Free Event