Edith Kernerman

Lives and works in Toronto, ON, Canada

Artist statement

My work begins with drawing and moves between painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, and mixed media. I'm interested in what happens when an image moves from one material or surface to another. Much of my recent work begins with fragments of memory, photographs, or images I've carried for years. I take them apart, move them between materials, and put them together differently. I can't change the past, but I can reframe how those memories and images live with me into the future. I print images onto glass or aluminium and then work over them by hand with pigment sticks and oil. I build sculpture from reclaimed materials like broken glass and salvaged wood, and I often draw on paper made from my own failed drawings. A car accident in 2001 permanently changed my hand-eye coordination and depth perception. I can't always make a mark land exactly where I intend, and I've learned not to automatically correct it. Sometimes that unexpected mark gives me another possibility. Something I might once have seen as a mistake can change the direction of the piece I'm working on.

Artwork

• It's On, 2025. Mixed media on rag paper: watercolour, gouache, crayon, NuPastel, chalk and ink.
• The Monster of Montreal: There's No Looking Back, 2026. UV-cured ink on aluminium, hand-finished with oil and encaustic stick.
• It's My Bench Now, 2026. Oil stick on glass, modelling clay, tulle and ballet costume fragments on mirror base.
• The Monsters' Dance, 2026. UV-cured ink on aluminium, hand-finished with oil and encaustic stick.
• Forest for the Trees In Time… Again, 2024. Charcoal drawing on rag paper, printed onto glass, digitally reworked, then UV-printed on aluminium and hand-finished with oil paint.
• Inversion, 2021. Oil on stretched canvas.
• La Tour Hydro en Couleur, 2021. Sumi ink, Chinese watercolour, charcoal, Caran d'Ache Neocolor wax pastel and Sennelier chalk pastel on Arches rag paper.
• They Sat on the Roof, 2023. Broken annealed glass, shattered tempered glass, black, green and clear glass, Chinese ink and gilded glass knobs.
• It's My Bench Now, So Try Me, 2026. Digital.
• It Was Only a Bench, 2026. UV-cured ink on aluminium, hand-finished with oil and encaustic stick.
• The Little Bench Beside His House (version 1), 2023. Reclaimed glass, wood and felt.
• Ladder Nowhere, 2023. Broken glass.
• Ravine, 2020. Willow and compressed charcoal, ink, chalk pastel, chalk and carbon pencil on handmade rag paper.
• Inverted Spirit Bear Salmon Spawn, 2022. Oil on stretched canvas.
• La Tour Hydro en Couleur, Evolved, 2024. Mixed media on aluminium.
• The Hurting: Forest for the Trees, 2021. Ink, charcoal, chalk and chalk pastel on Arches rag paper.
• Passage, Blue Version, 2024. Mixed media on aluminium.
• Boy Under a Bridge, 2024. UV-cured ink on 10 mm Starfire annealed glass, safety sealed, from the charcoal drawing on rag paper.
• Requiem Blooming, 2026. UV print on aluminium, hand-finished with acrylic marker, R&F pigment stick and oil paint; mounted on a wood frame.
• Triptych in Blue: The Game, The Reality, Hope, 2023. Mixed media on aluminium, three panels.
• Braeside Street Monster, 2025. UV-cured ink on aluminium, hand-finished with oil and encaustic stick.
• Remnants of a Monster, 2026. UV-cured ink on aluminium, hand-finished with oil and encaustic stick.
• Passage, 2021. Charcoal, chalk pastel and chalk on handmade Japanese rag paper.
• Boy Under a Bridge, 2020. Charcoal and chalk pastel on rag paper.
• Braeside Street Monster (version 2), 2025. Digital drawing printed on aluminium, finished by hand with oil
• Vacated Bench, 2024. Mixed Media imprinted into glass, oil stick
• The Little Bench Beside His House (aka Why don’t I remember?), 2023. Mixed Media on paper, Digital, printed on glass
• Unprotected, 2023. Mixed Media, Digital, printed on glass
• Playing the Field, 2023. Mixed Media on paper, Digital, Printed on glass
• Les Tours Hydro en Couleur, 2021. Mixed Media on Rag paper
• Shattered at 13, 2022. Reclaimed broken champagne candelabra, antique Tom Wilson mirror, shattered black glass, on black wooden base.
• Unprotected: The Little Bench, 2023. glass, wood, mirror, water
• Her Stairway (version 4), 2023. Glass and broken glass.
• Her Stairway (Version 3), 2023. glass, broken glass
• The Little Bench Beside His House in Glass, 2023. glass, shattered glass, smoked glass, felt
• The Castle Nowhere, 2023. Oil on Canvas, Digital, printed on glass
• Hibiscus Triptych, 2023. Oil on Canvas, Digital, Printed on glass
• If a Tree Falls…, 2021. Charcoal, Chalk, Conte, Chalk Pastel on Arches Rag Paper
• La Tour Hydro, Vive Le Canada series, 2021. Charcoal, chalk, chalk pastel on rag paper
• Done, 2021. Digital photograph.