Unintended Arrangements: Trash, Transit, and Other Delicate Things

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, September 12, 6-8 pm at Open Studio.

In Unintended Arrangements: Trash, Transit, and Other Delicate Things, Evey Francis-Work presents a series of prints developed from photographs taken while navigating Toronto’s transit system and surrounding streets. Since moving to the city in 2022, she has been noticing odd bits of trash; things that felt strangely placed, visually satisfying, or just kind of funny. Over time, documenting these small scenes became a quiet habit, a way of staying present during everyday movement through the city.

The works are printed using waterless lithography with layered screen-printed elements. This combination allows for precision and texture while creating space to reinterpret each image. Translating a quick phone photo into a multi-step print invites a kind of pause, a chance to spend more time with something most people walk right past.

There is no single message behind these pieces. What ties them together is a sense of curiosity, humour, and attention to things usually ignored. Some scenes feel absurd, others oddly beautiful. All of them suggest that something happened, though what exactly, we will never know.

Francis-Work approaches these accidental arrangements with care, using print to hold onto a moment that might otherwise be lost to time, cleanup crews, or the next streetcar pulling in. Unintended Arrangements offers these moments back to the viewer, not as statements, but as small mysteries worth noticing.

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Evey Francis-Work is a Métis visual artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, originally from Saskatchewan. Her practice focuses on waterless lithography and digital media, with an emphasis on process-driven experimentation. She explores themes of humour, self-expression, and identity by layering images and combining unexpected elements. Through both traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques, Evey engages deeply with material and process, using them as tools to invite new ways of seeing and understanding familiar ideas.

Francis-Work holds a BFA in Visual Arts. Her work has been exhibited internationally and featured in film festivals and group exhibitions across Canada. Continuously evolving her practice, she explores the intersections of printmaking and multimedia, seeking fresh approaches to visual storytelling.