Old Friends is pleased to present Tracks and Other Signs, the gallery’s first solo exhibition with E. Saffronia Downing (b. 1992, Baltimore, MD).

Collecting remnants of landscape, E. Saffronia Downing acts as cartographer and wayfinder. Her sculptures employ locally dug clay, brick pebbles from the lakeshore, and impressions of animal tracks made in sidewalk pavers to follow patterns of habitation. Often unseen, the presence of these patterns is given form, recorded by the artist’s touch.

In Downing’s installations, fragments of material and image are arranged into fractalized geometries, each surface a window into a unique instance. Glassy pools shine from the ceramic tiles: pebbles, sand, and other detritus collected in situ, transformed by the heat of the kiln. The seams between the sidewalks (2024) illustrates an imagined topography of Chicago. Risograph images of goose tracks on the lakeshore are framed by ceramic tiles bearing incised grids, undulating glazes, and geological residue. Alchemical interactions between materials collected on Downing’s surfaces mirror relationships observed in the environment.

Eroding surface impressions, Downing sandblasts many of her ceramic forms before glazing, prior to the final firing. Crookneck vessels (2024) bear holes worn through by the persistent friction. The reductive process is echoed in the artist’s collection of brick pebbles — industrial masonry debris polished over time by the motion of the lake. Brick and clay surfaces both reflect a soft light, a familiar touch.

Through Downing’s studied approach to material, she records the delicate balance held within interdependent systems. Her sculptures map animal migration and ecological patterns to illuminate pathways to safety through a shifting environment. In kinship with interspecies neighbors, Downing joins them in pursuit of habitable space.

E. Saffronia Downing is an artist and educator invested in craft processes, embodied research, and ecological thought. Downing forages local materials to create site-specific installations and sculptures. Downing received her MFA in ceramics from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020. She has received fellowships from the College of the Atlantic (2023), Lunder Institute of American Art (2022), and Oxbow School of Art (2021). Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

E. Saffronia Downing: Tracks and Other Signs will be on view at Old Friends, 3405 N. Paulina Street, Chicago, IL, from June 7 – July 20, 2024. For more information, please contact the gallery at +1 (917) 971-7566 or office@oldfriendsgallery.com.

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