This work features a family photo of my mother during a 1970s family vacation to Cancún. Standing beside her sister and cousin, the image has been transferred onto a corroded copper plate, capturing my family within a tropical landscape where their figures are partially faded and fragmented by the rusted textures. The image’s integration into the copper surface allows the metal itself to tell a story of time passing, of memories both lost and reclaimed. Much of the photograph has merged with the copper through the transfer process, yet the human figures and parts of the background remain discernible: faint green tones from hedges and palm trees blend seamlessly with the copper’s natural patina. The surface appears aged, as though exposed to the elements over decades, invoking the feeling of an artifact that has journeyed through time—a piece retrieved after years of wear. In creating this work, I was reminded of the sepia-tone filter often used in Hollywood to depict Mexico, a stylized attempt to convey the environmental contrast between the north and the tropics.

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.