Collection: Mariana Bolanos

Mariana Bolaños is a Mexican sculptor based in Toronto. She has been working with ceramics for over four years and exhibits her work regularly. She has been part of several shows in Canada, Mexico and The United States. Focusing on art with a social purpose, she works as a facilitator in community programs with children, women and newcomers around Toronto and the GTA. Mariana studied visual arts in Mexico and obtained a Diploma in Fine Arts when she moved to Canada. She is a recent graduate of the Ceramics program at Sheridan College.

Artist Statement

My body of work engages with themes of migration, social justice and gender equality. I am inspired by nature and nature’s cycles of life and death as symbols of resilience; here, I am able to convey the stories of where I come from and who I am as a woman and as an immigrant.  My experience with ceramics began in Mexico extracting clay directly from nature. Drawing on these memories has made the language of the raw material important in my work. Paying close attention to the roundness of the form, the malleability of clay and the building of textures on the surface, my work alludes to life and fertility.