NADIRA NARINE

Panamanian -Canadian glass artist Nadira Narine is inspired by traditional Panamanian craft, including woven and clay baskets and molas, layered textiles created by the Guna people, the series features a black-and-white pattern formed through the chemical reaction of glass colours, a process Nadira has honed over the last five years. This pattern allows her to explore surface textures that closely mimic ceramics.

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The Woven Series explores a sense of belonging and home. Having lived in Toronto for over a decade, Nadira continues to navigate feelings of ni de aquí ni de allá, which means, neither from here nor from there. This series allows her to process these emotions, leading to new iterations over time.

 

The original Woven works combine this black-and-white pattern with trails of coloured glass. Where the colour meets the reactive surface, the interaction resembles stitching. Over the last two years, Nadira has expanded the series with surface applications, including small dots of colour inspired by beadwork. More recently, she has explored techniques that mimic the reverse appliqué process used in molas, carving away the black-and-white surface to reveal underlying colours.