This work centers around my grandmother’s floral-patterned couch. The piece is an acrylic transfer on corroded copper, depicting my parents seated on the couch in their 20s, back when they were dating. At one point in my childhood, my entire family moved into my grandmother’s apartment, and this couch became part of countless memories. A beautiful explosion of cyan from the corroded patina bleed through the image, extending from the middle out towards the edges of the frame, giving the impression of seeing a great lake from the sky. Although I hadn’t thought of it in years, seeing a photo of the couch instantly brought those memories flooding back. I recall sitting there with my brother, sorting through my grandmother’s match collection, which she kept in a glass container on the coffee table. I remember tiptoeing around it as my uncle dozed off after our weekly Tuesday dinners, with my brother and me giggling at how he could sleep with his eyes wide open. Since creating this piece, I find myself thinking of those years with my grandmother whenever I see a floral-patterned couch on the street, waiting to be discarded or perhaps taken into a new home.

Ernesto Cabral de Luna

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Ernesto Cabral de Luna is a Mexican lens-based artist working in Toronto. Utilizing both analog and digital processes, he merges experimental techniques with sculpture and installation, printing onto unconventional and manipulated surfaces to emphasize the multi-dimensionality and materiality of the image. His work centers around altering perception through image manipulation – providing new ways to experience recognizable imagery in unconventional manners and outside of their intended purpose. Ernesto's practice is interested in the fragmentary nature of memory, both individual and collective - and constantly seeks new ways to manipulate these alternative histories he is creating. Ernesto received his BFA in photography from OCAD University in 2024, where he received the 2024 Barbara Astman Photography Award and the 2021 Wendy Coburn Art and Social Change Scholarship. A recipient of the 2024 Gallery44 Residency Award and the 2024 Partners in Art's Artist-Direct Grant, Ernesto has exhibited at Patel Brown, Ignite Gallery, Ada Slaight, Xpace Cultural Center, and Abbozzo Gallery. Ernesto was selected for the Toronto Raptors’ 2022 Welcome Toronto Creators Program. He has worked closely with notable companies such as The Toronto Raptors, Coors Light and Walmart Canada. In summer 2024, he was commissioned for a public mural by Luminato Festival at Finch Station, as well as a public billboard outside Artscape Youngplace for Critical Distance Centre for Curators. His work is a part of Casey House Foundation's 2024 Art with Heart auction. Ernesto’s thesis project has been supported through funding by OCAD’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists, The Ontario Arts Council and Partners in Art Canada.