Exploring the Archive: Image Transfers as Diasporic Storytelling

Through the manipulation of personal and found archives, this workshop will explore varied approaches to image making and distortion. Led by artist Ernesto Cabral de Luna, participants will learn techniques for transforming and embedding images onto found materials to consider unpredictable imperfections as sources of aesthetic and conceptual inspiration. Materials such as copper, glass, and watercolour paper will be explored.

No prior experience is necessary, and all materials will be provided in advance. The workshop will engage with some central concerns in both Ernesto Cabral de Luna’s practice and the exhibition , such as themes of diaspora, immigration, memory, and archival rupture.

Participants are asked to send 3-4 archival photographs by January 28 to [email protected]. These images will serve as the foundation for creating 1-3 final works. Participants are also encouraged to bring their own objects and surfaces for experimentation.

This program is free and open to the public! Registration is required.

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About the Artist

Ernesto Cabral de Luna (b. 1996, Cholula) is a Mexican lens-based artist working in Toronto. Working through analog and digital processes, he utilizes his own photographs and archival family photos to explore the fragmentary nature of memory. Interested in narratives of migration, his material and process-driven explorations allow for the construction of alternate narratives.

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Image: Ernesto Cabral de Luna, Untitled (reference image of transfers on glass) (detail), 2025. Photo courtesy of the artist.

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Host or Publisher Art Museum at the University of Toronto