One Small Instrument

Tania COlette b., Camille Garcia, Paloma Jiminez, Lucas t. mcmahon, cidney owen, cornelia peterson, markus puskar, Walter Ware

Opening reception: March 28, 2026

Open through April 26, 2026

Friend of a Friend is pleased to announce One Small Instrument featuring artists Tania Colette B. (Seattle), Camille Garcia (Denver), Paloma Jimenez (Denver), Lucas T. McMahon (Denver), Cidney Owen (Milwaukee), Cornelia Peterson (Denver), Markus Puskar (Denver) and Walter Ware (Denver).

One Small Instrument brings together a collection of works that meditate on the tools we use and the acts or labor they might help perform. More than purely functional, these objects require actions that range from aspirational to the spiritual where the human body and psyche must become the medium, or instrument through which energy is passed. Each piece in this exhibition holds power through reclamation, sustenance, or resistance. 

Tania Colette B.’s tableau of print on mortar is placed onto a set of salvaged bricks that act as a backdrop for their research into labor practices throughout history. Scouring books for drawings of workers in the act – a luthier making a lute, a man chipping away at a stone in a quarry, or a potter sitting at a wheel – she transfers the spirit of manual labor onto a material meant to hold bricks together. A brick’s specific dimensions relate to the ideal size to weight ratio for a human to hold and carry for an entire shift of work. To Collete, the brick has also been an object of resistance, often used during protest to thwart oppressive forces. 

Camille Garcia’s delicate set of enameled spoons give care and attention to an object  currently so ubiquitous and mass produced. Hand hammered and sculpted from sheets of copper, each spoon’s body is rendered almost identical. The amount of skill and patience coupled with a wide range of jewelry making tools, creates a formal extension from our hand to our mouth. Covered with delicate and ornate enamel, Garcia toes the line between object of beauty and object of use. 

Paloma Jimenez’s work represents and reconfigures the poetry, humor, and degradation of the physical world that surrounds us. Bringing that which is on the periphery into focus is an invitation to restructure pre-existing hierarchies of value; a key used to unlock a door is exaggerated in size or a ceramic coil becomes an extension cord when glazed in safety orange. Sculpted from clay, peripheral subjects of everyday life can reveal tender truths if we spend some time paying attention. 

Lucas T. McMahon’s enigmatic work peers into the world of amulets and talismans by kiln casting soda-lime glass. These objects dip their toes into the spiritual with an intended use, at the very least, meant to harness and transfer focused energies into the real world. With depictions of horse heads, yin yang fish, ladders, knives, and pentagrams, McMahon puts forth a muddied story of the personal for the audience to determine what kind power each pendant might hold. While installing this piece, one fell from the shelf and broke – we asked him, what does that mean to break a talisman? Their answer was “I haven’t been in the game long enough to know.”

Cidney Owen’s work lies at the cornerstones of fantasy and anemoia, validated by labor and material. They record poetry of dream-like lands with castles and Knights and envision themselves in this realm as these roles: farmer, scribe, jester, and Knight.

They gather raw materials as the farmer and transform them into paper, ceramics, and milled lumber. As the scribe, they write poetry late into the night with walnut ink. Finally, as the jester, they orchestrate experiences and playfully obstruct the more intimate aspects of writing and work from the viewer. Owen’s studied and constructed taxonomy of knives and daggers creates a slightly off grid pattern of tiny tools morphing their use from the deadly to the intimate. 

Cornelia Peterson’s set of hand carved forks and spoons imagine new functionality for well established utensils. Two forks meld together to become more of a comb, or a single spoon with a wishbone handle forces the viewer to question how they would use this to eat food. Some of the shapes, three ladles in succession on a single stem, deny traditional purpose and create a new set of rules not yet known to the user. With each piece, there is a delicacy and elegance in contrast with the want to find its use through handling and implementation. 

In Empty Vessel, Markus puskar mixes the rational with the spiritual in an expansive and detailed ink drawing. Magnifying glasses and scissors mingle with flowing bodies and plumes of cloudy smoke in a void of black ink that challenges depth and space. There is an autonomy to the way the drawing comes together with abstract patterns and swirls that gravitate to the center only to shoot out to the perimeter of the paper leaning into an investigation of the regular cycle of enchantment and disillusionment we often find ourselves in as human beings. Within the image that Puskar has created, the body becomes an odd vessel, examined then blown in the wind like a leaf or flower. Walter Ware III is an artist trained in welding, forging, and blacksmithing. Steeped in old world mythology, western history, and archaeology, he reclaims metal to make his objects. In his work Memories, Ware casts a heavy rope out of an even heavier material, iron. Attached to a shovel head with a hand made wood pin, his sculpture has the ability to stand upright on its own defying gravity and creating an extra heaviness rooted towards the ground. This piece survived a house fire and still holds the smokey soot that enveloped it years ago. His series of knives American Tecpatl and Experiment 1 are forged from recycled bandsaw blades and hacksaws, respectively. The reuse from one discarded cutting tool to another and transformed by labor can be seen through the lens of archeology taking on the form of a ritual tool or traditional knife displayed as remnants from multiple pasts.