2025
Aquatic Rumours - 2024
by Veronica Moore
@veromur
veronicamoore.mx
May 2025 - August 2025
Upon encountering the sheets of numbers created by my son, a mathematician by profession, I felt transported to a world of symbols and representations that were unfathomable to me. At that moment, I was working with aquatic plants, deeply immersed in observing these living beings that, in their natural cycle, head towards decomposition. This process evoked for me the delicacy and mysticism of oriental art. As I delved deeper into the subject, I discovered that algae, lotuses, water lilies, nori, and other aquatic plants have been depicted in paintings throughout the history of Japanese art, particularly in woodblock prints, especially ukiyo-e, which flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries, as well as in the famous lily prints by Katsushika Hokusai.
Inspired by these traditions, I envisioned how my photographs could establish a dialogue with mathematics, using symbols and metaphors to explore and decipher water and aquatic plants. Unlike traditional Japanese art, where aquatic plants emerge from bodies of water or touch the land, my intention is to capture them in their natural environment: the water itself. Through this immersion, I seek to reveal the intrinsic beauty and the mysterious relationship between these natural elements and the mathematical universe.
Veronica Moore
Veronica Moore was born in Chile's Central Valley in 1965 and grew up on a ranch where her parents managed a vineyard alongside livestock, fruit orchards, and vegetable gardens. Her childhood memories are deeply intertwined with living among horses, climbing trees, and experiencing the passage of time through the changing seasons.
In 1973, her mother, sister, and Veronica were forced into exile in Mexico. This event drastically altered her world and transformed her palette of colours: she opened herself to the grandeur of Mexican culture, fell in love with its people, and became endlessly fascinated by its vitality and diversity. At the same time, the uprooting caused by exile intensified her desire to capture everything that tends to disappear and, in this case, from memory. She strives to depict beauty in places that evoke nostalgia, emptiness, and absence: behind those decaying facade windows, she glimpses her album of memories.
She is captivated by leaves—some appear perfect, while others bear the scars of their survival. At some point, she felt compelled to document this journey, leading to her photographic work with plants. Initially, she aimed to allude to the aesthetics of ancient botany, but soon after, she ventured into composition. During this journey, she discovered that plants are resilient yet extremely vulnerable beings like us.
Fog is another of her obsessions; it allows you to hide within it and, without warning, can abandon you, revealing what it conceals. Likewise, water is where you can immerse yourself in its depths or float upon its surface. These elements provide me peace and a deep connection to nature and my surroundings.
Past and Present - 2025
Series by David Scriven
August 2025 - November 2025
The images in Past and Present are drawn from an ongoing long-term project documenting the city block that encompasses Queen Street West, Ossington Avenue, Dundas Street West and Dovercourt Road. As a long-time resident of Little Portugal, I have observed its rapid transformation from supporting an ethnic community to a trendy entertainment destination. In this series, I seek to find and share what, for me, is the essence of this neighbourhood through the liminal spaces between what was and what is next.
The laneways of Little Portugal are evocative of my childhood growing up in the east end of the city and were an early inspiration for my artistic practice. While providing practical access for residents and businesses, they have become a playful place of unrestrained urban wilderness. Presenting work at the Alleyway Gallery allows me to celebrate their character and colour. In capturing this series over the last nine years, I am continually drawn to certain storefronts despite changes over time. While difficult to explain, these urban spaces have assumed a prominent role in my emotional relationship to the community. Together these two elements are the core of Past and Present.
David Scriven
David Scriven is a lens-based artist living in Toronto. Grounded in documentary photography, he has explored urban decay and renewal, including an ongoing project entitled City Block capturing the Little Portugal neighbourhood where he is a long-time resident. Common Ground, another ongoing project, emerged out of ancestry research started during the COVID-19 pandemic. Images from this series were featured in the Spectra 2024 and upcoming Spectra 2025 group shows at 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education and in the online Montreal-based magazine Carte Blanche, Issue 46. He has also exhibited work at the MacKendrick Community Gallery, Artscape Youngplace, Gallery 44 Centre of Contemporary Photography in Toronto and at ViewPoint Gallery in Halifax. In November 2021, he self-published a photo book entitled Alexandra Park that captured a year in the demolition and rebuilding of a Toronto west-end community housing project