Z’otz* Collective: Bartering Futures

September 13 - October 26, 2024

Eastern Edge is pleased to present Bartering Futures, a Main Gallery exhibition by Z’otz* Collective! Join us for an opening reception on Friday, September 13th from 6-8pm, with a special artist talk from Z’otz* Collective starting around 6:30! We will also have snacks and refreshments to go around! Click here to RSVP to the Facebook event.

Z’otz* Collective was formed by three artists with Latin American heritage, who hold a shared interest in collaborative art making. They meet on a weekly basis to create drawings, ceramic sculptures, site–specific installations, and animation. Drawing is their primary means of expression and is used to respond to each other and to what surrounds them. The direct approach enables them to produce idiosyncratic, playful images that touch on the themes of migration, transformation and regeneration.

Z’otz* uses the niche as a point of departure for the wall drawing in the exhibition space. It is a platform that incorporates elements and iconography of cultural hybridity. The artists are intrigued by the niche as a space to incubate, collect, investigate, and share stories.

The group’s name comes from the Mayan word for bat, an animal that represented dreaming and intuition in the Mesoamerican world. Their work connects to the storytelling traditions of their roots, with anthropomorphic beings and symbols that transition between the individual and collective dynamic.

Z’otz* Collective was established in Toronto in 2004. Their work is in the permanent collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The artists first experimented with clay in a residency in Serbia. Since then, they have integrated ceramic sculptures into their practice, which also includes large-scale drawing installations and animation. The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art invited them to participate in a residency to produce work for a solo exhibition in 2022. They held a series of workshops with migrant agricultural workers, in a greenhouse in Leamington, Ontario. The Collective have had over 30 solo exhibitions and over 40 group exhibitions in museums, galleries and artist-run centres in Canada, Mexico, USA, Serbia, and China. The group has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Photo Documentation

Photo Credit: Laura Sbrizzi