PIA is proud to support the practice of Ernesto Cabral de Luna and his exhibition project “Mining For Some Sort of Continuity” as a part of a group-show taking place at Xpace Cultural Centre (Toronto, ON). This group exhibition is titled Soul Jubilee curated by Philip Leonard Ocampo. 

“Mining For Some Sort of Continuity” draws inspiration from 20th-century Mexican Retablos—votive paintings crafted on tin sheets and circulated among the lower “mestizo” classes. Focused on exile and the ephemeral nature of memory, the series interrogates the repercussions of colonization: primarily the constraints on movement across borders. Central to this exploration is the examination of personal archives’ ability to shape and preserve an immigrant’s individual and cultural identity beyond their native home. Utilizing corrugated metal as a recognizable material from the “global south,” the artist examines the political implications of migration, repurposing the scrap material and embedding it with significance by transforming it into a canvas for the preservation of memories. 

Ernesto Cabral de Luna is a Mexican lens-based artist working in Toronto.  Working through analog and digital processes, he utilizes his own photographs, archived imagery and documents to create still images and short animations emphasizing 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 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. The recipient of the 2024 Gallery44 Residency Award, he has exhibited at various galleries in Toronto including Ada Slaight, Xpace Cultural Center, and Abbozzo Gallery.