Seeds of Our Ancestors

October 1 – November 28, 2026
Sur Gallery, Toronto

Programming

Opening Reception
Saturday, October 3, 5-7pm
In-person | Register here

Artist Tour with Hugo Bernilla and Maria Luisa de Villa
Saturday, November 14, 3-4pm
In-person | Register here

Curator Tour
Saturday, November 28, 3-4pm
In-person | Register here

About the Exhibition

Latin America as a construct fulfills a modernity project to homogenize a region full of contradictions and layered histories. It is composed of a multitude of cultural, ethnic, political, social, economic, histories, and experiences, with fewer commonalities than differences. It is also a region marked by colonialism and neocolonial tendencies, continuously under threat by imperialist interests. This imposed construct is marked by centuries of violence, with the intention of erasing Indigenous presence. How can we celebrate Latin American Heritage Month in October, far away from the region, without challenging and questioning this reality?

The exhibition Seeds of Our Ancestors invites viewers to question, reflect, and understand the nuances behind the construction of heritage and identity and instead seeks to draw attention to what has been ignored, erased, and neglected. The artists Hugo Bernilla and Maria Luisa de Villa search for wisdom from the land they come from, honouring Andean and Mesoamerican ancestral knowledge from those territories. Their artistic explorations and processes reclaim ancestral food technology and agricultural knowledge as critical to understand their Peruvian and Mexican identity, linking embodied memory and their connection to land. Celebrating and honoring millennial knowledge as integral and living within their own identities and heritage, these artists develop an aesthetic language that recognizes that food is heavily tied to land, memory and life.

Restoring relationships and recognizing value in Indigenous knowledge from Abya Yala, these artists recover and highlight the interconnections, purposes, and relationships that thrive despite colonial and imperial attempts to deny and erase.

Curated by Tamara Toledo.

This exhibition is in partnership with Hispanic Canadian Arts & Cultural Association and Hemispheric Encounters.

Hugo Bonilla, The Sound of a Childhood Memory, 2026, corn flour, husk, light bulbs, speaker, steel cable. Image courtesy of the artist.

About the Artists

Hugo Bernilla is a Peruvian-born Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist, educator and researcher. Born in Lambayeque, northern Peru, and raised in the capital, Lima, his artistic practice explores the interconnections between living things (seeds), objects (culture), and human beings (society). His research-creation practice is shaped by his personal history and intergenerational narratives that are connected to his homeland, his education in Peru, and his experience as an immigrant living in Canada. Bernilla holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design from OCAD University, Toronto; an MA in Art and Media Practice from the University of Westminster, London; a BFA in Painting from the National Autonomous University of Fine Arts of Peru, Lima; and a B.Ed. in Arts and Humanities Studies from San Ignacio de Loyola University, Lima. His work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Peru and internationally, including in Taiwan, Germany, Italy, Israel, Poland, England, Austria, and Canada.

Maria Luisa de Villa was born and raised in Mexico City, she has been living in Canada since 1961. With over 50 years in the arts, she is recognized for her lifelong contribution to Spanish speaking communities in Canada. She received her BFA from York University in 1986, an MFA from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico in 2000, and has studied with various artists including: Francisco Toledo, José Luis Cuevas, Gilberto Aceves Navarro, Ted Bieler, Tim Whiten, Carl Schaeffer, Norval Morrisseau, and David Blake. Multiple group and solo exhibitions in Canada and Mexico include: the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2022); La Mano Mágica Gallery, Oaxaca (2021); Art Gallery of Ontario (2012); Yukon Arts Centre (2009); Art Gallery of Sudbury (2009); Museo Diego Rivera (2004); Maison de la culture Côte- des-Neiges, Montreal (2003); Hart House Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto (2003 and 1998); and McMichael Museum of Canadian Art (1992); among many others. Recipient of countless grants and awards, Maria Luisa de Villa’s artworks are part of various private and public collections mostly in Mexico and Canada.

About the Curator

Tamara Toledo, Ph.D. is a Toronto-based art historian, curator, writer, and artist. Her essays, reviews, and exhibition texts can be found in various publications including ARM Journal, C Magazine, Fuse, Canadian Art, Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture Journal of the University of California, and Concordia University Press. Toledo is co-founder of LACAP (Latin American Canadian Art Projects) and the multidisciplinary Allende Arts Festival (2003-2011). She conceived and developed the Latin American Speakers Series (2008-2025); ARCHIVO (a digital archive of Latin American, Latin-Caribbean, Latinx and Indigenous artists from the Latin American region, based in Canada); and Positionality: A Symposium on Latin American and Latinx art in Canada (2022). She has worked in collections, programming, and curatorial research roles at A Space Gallery, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Toledo has presented at conferences in Canada, the United States, Colombia and Mexico. Toledo is currently the Director/Curator of Sur Gallery, the only art space dedicated to contemporary Latin American and Latinx art in Canada.

Sur Gallery is Toronto’s first gallery space dedicated to the exhibition and critical engagement of contemporary Latin American and Latinx art and is a project of the non-profit arts organization LACAP (Latin American Canadian Art Projects).

For information contact:

Sur Gallery/LACAP
39 Queens Quay East, Suite 100
Toronto, ON M5E OA5
416-654-7787
info@surgallery.ca
www.surgalleryvirtual.ca | www.lacap.ca

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Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Friday: Noon – 6pm
Saturday: 11pm – 5pm

Sur Gallery acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts; Ontario Arts Council; Government of Ontario; Toronto Arts Council; and The City of Toronto through section 37. Sur Gallery also acknowledges its partners and sponsors Hispanic Canadian Arts & Cultural Association; Hemispheric Encounters; Benjamin Moore, Maple Paints & Wallpaper, and See Through Web.