Mayten’s Gallery Opens Its Fifth Exhibition, Earth Oracles

Apr 2022

Mayten’s Gallery Opens Its Fifth Exhibition, Earth Oracles

Earth Oracles Exhibition

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Contact Phone Number: 800.925.7030

March 19 – June 25th, 2022

Mayten’s Gallery curates unique exhibitions with a focus on education and community engagement

Toronto, Ontario, CANADA, April 2022 - Earth Oracles, the 5th exhibition at Mayten’s Gallery, opened March 19th, 2022 and features an intriguing slate of fifteen contemporary ceramic artists from the United States and Canada. Located in the heart of Toronto’s Niagara district, Mayten’s Gallery upends the traditional, commercial and institutional gallery model by nurturing community and public engagement with a major commitment to education and nurturing the younger generation through distinguished programming. The artists included in Earth Oracles are: Linda Sormin, Roxanne Jackson, Sasha Koozel, Lindsay Montgomery, Nick Lenker, Sharon Norwood, Suzanne Nacha, Sami Tsang, Shannon Goff, Laurence Veri, Erin Smith, Marissa Alexander, Charles Snowden, Laurent Craste, Dirk Staschke.

Co-curated by Lindsay Montgomery and Farnoosh Talaee, the exhibition focuses on artists who take an innovative approach to materials, creating new realities and alternate histories that recenter marginalized narratives, strive for justice and offer imaginative glimpses of a better world. The works themselves are otherworldly and/or offer portals to hidden worlds within the medium of ceramics, who’s history resides in craft but is now central in contemporary art for its exploration and experimentation. Laurent Craste’s ceramic vessels are a humorous, animated yet destructive take on the stoic traditional vase while Roxanne Jackson’s vases and busts are infused with seductive, beastly pop culture references. Sami Tsang creates disturbing characters within this narrative, offering perhaps companionship or perhaps misleading guidance where Linda Sormin’s collage ceramic pieces are like topographical maze maps, compelling you to look for any ground you can stand upon. Suzanne Nacha’s figurines call to mind a Pixar created Woman of Willendorf and Sasha Koozel’s sculpture beings are like sacred relics from a world unknown, both referencing past and future simultaneously. Each piece in the exhibition stands alone but the works altogether in the gallery create a limitless story in the relationships they create between one another.

Sasha Koozel, And Still so Long from Snow 2022, porcelain, electro-magnetic suspension, 7x7x5 ″

Earth Oracles opened March 22nd, 2022 and runs through June 25th, 2022.

Established in 2020 by Hirbod Human and Farnoosh Talaee, the gallery aims to foster connection within art and bring impactful experiences with contemporary art to the public, promotes both international and domestic artists in the global context and develops sensitive and critical dialogues toward artistic practices and diverse cultural methodology. The gallery is a welcoming and inclusive space where visitors are invited to come often and participate in the shared experience of art.

- By Sarah Walko, April 2022