Chance Shermet

Chance Shermet is a Toronto-based artist designer who creates works intersecting the areas of object, sculpture and installation. After completing a co-op at a cabinet shop, he discovered a passion and appreciation for woodworking and craft. Upon completing the Industrial Design program at OCAD University in 2021, Chance has shown work across Toronto at Artscape Gibraltar Point, DesignTO x OCAD U, J-Spot and Ignite Gallery. Chance has recently received the Emerging Artist Award from the Dan Lawrie International Sculpture Collection and participated in the Rimbun Dahan artist residency in Selangor, Malaysia during Summer 2024.

Chance’s work draws from morphing material culture, ecological intelligence and natural phenomena. Working primarily in natural mediums like wood, stone, eggshell and metal, he creates objects existing in the space between sculpture and function, with a reverence for craft.

Using objects and materials as a lens to investigate the dynamic relationship between people, place, and the constructed and natural environments, he reimagines objects as symbolic or metaphorical to engage with social, existential and ecological ideas.

A beaver’s instinct to fell trees or the spiritual meaning of a hagstone become conceptual anchors which implant cultural narratives and natural intelligence into crafted forms.

These works attempt to subvert assumptions of utility and materiality, inviting viewers to reconsider familiar and forgotten matter as living, storied vessels of meaning. Ultimately, his practice is a philosophical inquiry through craft and making – asking what it means to be human in the natural world.