An Alternative to Simplicity

An Exhibition by Z’otz* Collective
Nahúm Flores, Erik Jerezano, Ilyana Martínez

Z’otz* Collective, A Way of Commuting, 2025, mixed media on paper. Image courtesy of the artists.

Z’otz* Collective: An Alternative to Simplicity

September 18 – October 19, 2025
Opening Reception: September 18, 5 – 7pm
The Campus Gallery, Georgian College, Barrie

The Campus Gallery exhibition An Alternative to Simplicity, welcomes viewers into the worlds of Z’otz* Collective. Founded in 2004, artists Nahúm Flores, Erik Jerezano, and Ilyana Martínez create site-specific installations with drawing, painting, sculpture, and animation to consider the role of transformation: both in space and within their collective creative process. Informed by their Latin American heritage, mythology and narrative, and a playfully collaborative investigation of the vast approaches to mark-making, the gallery will be the canvas for their stories and gestures to emerge.

This exhibition is in partnership with the Museum and Gallery Studies Department at Georgian College and The City of Barrie’s Culture Days.

Z’otz* Collective, Memories of the Toes, 2025, mixed media on paper. Image courtesy of the artists.

“An Alternative to Simplicity invites us to consider how identities are shaped in relation, how communities are carried on through stories, and how art becomes a living testament to the power of creating together. Within Z’otz* Collective’s work, we are reminded that to be transformed is also to belong” – Katie Anglin, Curatorial Essay

“Students at Georgian College were able to witness the five-day installation by Z’otz* Collective in The Campus Gallery. Working together and with the architecture of the space, students observed the spoken and suggested modes of creative collaboration. The imprints of drawing, sculpture, and animation will remain in the layers of institutional memory.” – Amy Bagshaw, Director of The Campus Gallery

About Z’otz* Collective

Z’otz* Collective was established in Toronto in 2004. Their work is in the permanent collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The artists first experimented with clay in a residency in Serbia. Since then, they have integrated ceramic sculptures into their practice, which also includes large-scale drawing installations and animation. This summer they had a solo exhibition at Varley Art Gallery of Markham. The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art invited them to participate in a residency to produce work for a solo exhibition in 2022. In conjunction with Art Windsor-Essex, the Collective led drawing workshops with migrant agricultural workers, in a greenhouse in Leamington, Ontario.

The Collective has created over 45 in-situ ephemeral drawing installations. They have had more than 30 solo and 40 group exhibitions in museums, galleries and artist-run centres in Canada, Mexico, USA, Serbia, and China. The group has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

About The Museum and Gallery Studies Program at Georgian College

As a student of the one-year, post-graduate Museum and Gallery Studies program, you will acquire a comprehensive foundation in museum and gallery work. You will develop capabilities in the main technical areas common to all museums and galleries: conservation and collections management, exhibition design, public programming, interactive technology, and administration. By advancing your existing knowledge through a blend of engaging academic instruction and experiential learning opportunities such as technical practice and a co-op work placement, you will be prepared to understand the legacy of museums and galleries while being a part of the change that moves this field of study forward. Connecting theory with practice, the Museum and Gallery Studies program focuses on curatorial sustainability, equity and diversity in curriculum and action, and instilling collaborative approaches to problem-solving. You will receive hands-on experience working with The Campus Gallery and Georgian College’s extensive art collection. Networking with museum and gallery professionals, historians, and artists, you will create off-site exhibitions with local cultural institutions. After your coursework is complete, a four-month co-op work placement will prepare you for the next steps in your career in Museums and Galleries.

Museum and Gallery Studies Program

About The Campus Gallery, Georgian College

The Campus Gallery objective and mandate is to deliver a diversity of visual to the City of Barrie, its immediate region and within the Georgian College campus community.

The exhibitions celebrate emerging, mid-career and established artists, designers and craftspersons, as well as students within post-secondary arts education. The Campus Gallery will support the exhibition objectives with informative artist lectures that will be open to the immediate community, high schools and the college community, thus creating an environment of critical thinking, insight and appreciation.

Through outreach and exchange, the Campus Gallery will host and present international exchange exhibitions and lectures as well as exhibitions of community outreach at our partner venues. We exhibit our significant collection and bring visual arts to distinctly different audiences, facilitating and encouraging a dialogue and awareness of the arts in our community.

The Campus Gallery, Georgian College
The Campus Gallery is located in room 140, D building (Helen and Arch Brown Centre for Design and Visual Arts) at the Barrie Campus, Georgian College, 1 Georgian Drive.

Contact the Director of The Campus Gallery, Amy Bagshaw
amy.bagshaw@georgiancollege.ca

Facebook @DVAcampusgallery
Instagram @thecampusgallery

Accessibility:
The Campus Gallery is fully accessible. For more information, please visit Georgian College Accessibility