Champion Potato Peeler is an affectionate homage to my mother, a Polish refugee and migrant, whose deft hands can strip a potato bare in one perfect peel. The title borrows from the playful nickname I’ve given her, but beneath the humour lies a deep respect for the resilience, skill, and love carried in this small act. Seated at her parents’ kitchen table — now mine — with a red colander at her side, she becomes part of an abstracted scene of pots, potatoes, chair and table. Bold colours, flat planes, and the deliberate absence of visible brushstrokes distil the image to its essence. The potato, both a food of survival and of joy, anchors the work in the shared histories and everyday rituals that shape who we are.

Photos by Jake Nemirovsky