NOTE FROM MARIO: Flor (the founder of Too Much Love Magazine and current Music editor of Miami New Times) put me on to Hoy Como Ayer as a venue for an exhibition one day when I was complaining about how hard it is to find venues. Maria and I arrived hoping it could make sense for a photography show we were working on at the time, and when we finally saw the space, Maria immediately said it needed to be a ceramic show. She was so right.
This show was alot of fun, it was our first time showing ceramic and the show was in the summer. It was so invigorating to see the ceramics community come to life for one another, and all of the work we included really looked like it belonged in the space once we were finsihed with it.
STATEMENT: Eso No Se Toca, a group exhibition featuring Hannah Banciella, Noah Farid, Sarah Ferrer, Samantha Ferrer, Brett Olivieri, and Victor Urroz, features a curated selection of functional, decorative, and personality-driven sculptures and ceramic work. The exhibition’s title is a tribute to discipline, both the slap on the hand our parents gifted us when we got too close to something they thought we would break, and the time it takes to finish a single artwork. Eso No Se Toca refers not to rules and time-outs, but to ideas of rebellion, nostalgia, and a maddening desire to hold something precious or simply pretty; to touch what we aren’t supposed to.
Hand-crafted artwork like ceramic vessels, decorative sculptures, and functional objects have been part of the human experience for more than thirty-thousand years. More often than not, we approach three-dimensional work and ask what their purposes are—what they’re meant to do for us in our spaces. However, the artist and audience create the meaning of an artwork, whether the object itself is made to hold flowers, keep your morning cafecito warm, light up a room, or invoke the importance of a special occasion. In Eso No Se Toca, these artists are borrowing from their aesthetic perspectives, Miami’s unique local culture, and one of the oldest art forms in history to explore and communicate what matters to them.
Eso No Se Toca is about activating memories and cultural values in our shared hometown, and the purpose of art in daily life. The phrase conjures a vision of our moms with a slipper in their hand, the feeling of getting caught in a curious act. Yet, it reflects ideas about the act of living and the concept of legacy, specifically the magical and sometimes sneaky feeling in one’s chest when exploring the items in our homes collected by grandparents, gifted by visiting relatives, or found on the side of the road in perfect condition. We hold them when we receive them, and keep them behind a glass door or on a faux mantle so they last forever, never touching them again. Much like these kooky shared memories, Eso No Se Toca presents a collection of works touching on life cycles, self-image and understanding, what it means to love one another, and understand ourselves. Each artist imbues these souls into their work through their own inventive creativity. They mold these pieces by hand, giving them their own shapes and spirits. They pull from childhood and family histories, and remind us of the value of material culture and the souls we feed into even the most commonplace objects, especially when we have little else to grab onto.