Live music to inspire ‘live art’ at Laurier’s Robert Langen Art Gallery

The Robert Langen Art Gallery will present a unique and collaborative mixed-media exhibition at the Wilfrid Laurier University Library with “Z’otz* Collective: Thinking Like the Rain,” later this week. 

Including artists like Honduras' Nahúm Flores, as well as Erik Jerezano and Ilyana Martínez, who are Mexican, the Z’otz* Collective creates art incorporating drawings, ceramic sculptures, and site-specific installations. Still, its direct means of expression is drawing, which allows for the creation of playful images that touch on themes of migration, transformation, and regeneration.

Each artist works on a different piece at the same time, before they exchange them and react creatively to one another's work.

“The Z’otz* Collective’s name comes from the Mayan word for bat. This is significant because the bat represents dreaming and intuition in the Mesoamerican world,” says Suzanne Luke, university art curator of the Robert Langen Art Gallery. “The Z’otz* work connects to the storytelling traditions of their roots, with hybrid beings and symbols that transition between the individual and collective dynamic. We’re thrilled to be bringing them to Laurier for this fascinating collaboration featuring live music inspiring live art.”

The three Z’otz* Collective artists have worked together in Canada and abroad, including attending residencies in Croatia and Serbia. 

For “Thinking Like the Rain,” the Z’otz* Collective will collaborate with members of Laurier’s Faculty of Music, who will perform as the artists work. The site-specific installation created in the gallery will reflect the inspiration and guidance provided by the musicians and their instruments.

Last year, Toronto’s Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art invited the group to participate in a residency, and in 2018, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts commissioned Z’otz* to create a series of ceramic sculptures for its permanent collection.

Z’otz* Collective: Thinking Like the Rain will run at The Robert Langen Art Gallery from Monday, Jan. 9 until Sunday, April 9. An opening reception will be held Wednesday, Jan. 18 from 7 to 9 p.m. More information is available here.