Located on the lower level of a mall in Toronto’s Chinatown, a long wooden cone marks entry to the shop. Inside, listening to Ian’s stories against a backdrop of indoor birdsong, there’s a sense of cosmic play at work. Rare Gaetano Pesce works live with lesser-known Canadian modernists, abstract metal furnishings, and days or weeks of ashed incense next to empty wine glasses from the night before.
Showcasing works he’s simply drawn to, Ian follows a loose, intuitive approach to collecting and curating. “It’s like feeling my way to the bathroom in someone else’s home in the middle of the night,” he tells me. Shirking conventional gallery paradigms, JASPA is a personal archive that suggests a more playful and irreverent way of relating to objects and their histories.
interview —
MICHELLE AGNEW
NICHOLAS GILMORE
photography & text —
WILHELMINA MER
toronto, april 2025
IAN AFIF — I don't know if it ever really crossed over like that. My family wasn’t much of a toy family. I used to just bring sticks and rocks home and those would become toys. I still pick up sticks and rocks and bring them home.
MICHELLE AGNEW — What was your first great find?
IAN AFIF — The most manifest example of that would be this painting I have behind my desk. It was hanging in the gallery that I walked by every day next to my elementary school. I really wanted it, then for my 10th birthday, my mom got it for me.
WILHELMINA MER — Let's see it.
IAN AFIF — It's a big fish, two guys sitting with a glass of... I don't know what that is. I just love it. It still doesn't make sense to me, and I really like that.
IAN AFIF — I worked for Queen West Antique Center at Queen and Ronces. It was a warehouse. I got hired because I was a bass player, like the owner. I didn't know anything about antiques - he gave me all the books to read. My mom would take me to antique shops growing up. I loved that shop. One day they had a Help Wanted sign when I needed a job. After that, I started working for every other shop in town.
MICHELLE AGNEW — And then you went to work in New York. What was it like stepping into the art and design community there?
IAN AFIF — If you take the work seriously, they respond appropriately. You can get chewed if you don't have the right intentions. It's tough even if you know what you're doing - and I don’t [laughs]. You can tell pretty quickly who's not cut out for that place. I was there on and off without a visa with my girlfriend for about a year and a half. We moved for her work, and I had to make money. I spent a lot of time walking around downtown shops with bags of stuff, presenting my wares to people.
WILHELMINA MER — So what, you went around in a big trench coat with antiques in the inner pockets? I need a visual.
IAN AFIF — Close to it. No, it was usually, like, a pretty ratty tote with a lamp or two and some sculpture or something.
WILHELMINA MER — Painting under one arm, bag with lampshades sticking out of a tote in the other? You're knocking into people on the street.
IAN AFIF — There are photos of me walking around downtown New York with chairs.
WILHELMINA MER — Let’s see them. Where’d you get those chairs?
IAN AFIF — [Redacted]
WILHELMINA MER — Okay, we're not publishing that. We can't let people know [laughs].
WILHELMINA MER — I mean, yeah. What's your stance on gatekeeping?
IAN AFIF — I don't mind sharing, but people are too opportunistic now. I won't share my contacts, but all the local auctions are available. I shop at the same places as everyone - I'm just on my phone more constantly. I avoid buying from Facebook because of the ethics - too many people can tell what you paid. Some people will be making as much money as a lawyer flipping couches off marketplace. There's no point of view. Respect to the hustle, though.
IAN AFIF — I like the Canadian thing. I'm proud to be from Toronto. It happened more as a reaction to seeing American art. I’m talking about museum-quality art. they really keep track of what went down. For identity's sake - it's so important for them. They know everything they've done.. Canada is behind on that front. They've turned folk art into high-ground vernacular. You have to study and appreciate this because it's all American identity. Every country has that except for Canada, really.
WILHELMINA MER — We've got the Group of Seven.
IAN AFIF — Yeah. And that sucks because we've had so much else going on. We have such nuclear reactions to what's Canadian art - if somebody came here 50 years ago and makes work in Canada, are they from here? Are they half this? We don't keep track of what happened. So me buying important Canadian art, it's going to be fractional compared to what you can find elsewhere. Like E.B. Cox, this sculptor I always seem to find. He worked here in Toronto, he's everywhere in the city. If you grew up here, you know his work. It's at the Ex, the CNE. If there was an artist from New York City of the same pedigree, you wouldn't be able to afford their work. I have books filled with Canadian artists and nobody knows anything about them.
WILHELMINA MER — You can buy a Group of Seven for fifteen thousand dollars.
IAN AFIF — Yeah, that's it. That's the state of art here - the most important Canadian art is not that expensive relative to what other work sells for. It's a funny Canadian art market.
MICHELLE AGNEW — How did you come across all this Canadian art that’s not very well known?
IAN AFIF — Because it's still here in relative abundance - it didn't really make it anywhere else. It's all still in our financial capitals: Toronto, Vancouver, maybe Montreal a bit, though they had their own insular thing. A lot ended up in the States when Toronto was on the map in the 70s with Yorkville. We had an important moment in the 50s, 60s and 70s. But for the impact they had, nobody knows. You walk by these people's work all the time.
IAN AFIF — They don't. It's either word of mouth or people walking in. Most walk-ins aren't interested in the business aspect. I've been alone on this island and I appreciate it.
WILHELMINA MER — There’s a new generation of young shop owners here. What’s happening in this mall?
IAN AFIF — I was working at Invisible City when we were presented with the mall six years ago. When I came back from New York, the shop came as a panic project - that's why I got this spot. I needed something to do with my hands. There was lots of vacancy in the mall. The older legacy businesses own the units. When things started changing, people thought it would revamp the whole mall. The impact varies - no shops have closed since. The security hates photographers, filming, and loitering.
WILHELMINA MER — I’ve been scolded for loitering. I like how the shop’s set up and that we’re in intimate proximity with everything.
WILHELMINA MER — It feels approachable. At the same time, it’s a bit intimidating coming into this somehwat obscure Chinatown mall for the first time, with the guards, then finding oneself in a high-end shop. What has surprised you most about how people interact with the space?
IAN AFIF — I have a lot of younger people coming into the shop. You can tell when someone's sensitive to spending money. That's partly why I don't put price tags on anything - I don't want you to engage differently if you don't think you can afford it. I'm like that too. If I walk into a nice shop and jackets are $1,000, I think twice about trying them on.
WILHELMINA MER — That allows people to engage on another level.
IAN AFIF — I'd rather tell you about walking in a blizzard at minus 40 with that chair on my back, negotiating for two months for it, than put some sleek write-up on a card and monetize that story. Unless someone's mishandling something, I won't tell you the price until after. The tableware ranges from $40 to two and a half grand, but I won't tell you which is which. My hope is that people are able to appreciate it - I don't want them to feel left out. With the Canadian pieces especially - it's our civic history. We're living in the city where it was made, and I think it's important that you get to know it.
MICHELLE AGNEW — Is your favorite part the stories of how you encountered pieces, sharing that, interacting with customers, or the discovery and history?
MICHELLE AGNEW — So you always follow personal interest.
IAN AFIF — Yeah, I'm charmed easily by many things, but mostly by a good story. If someone shows you a stick, it's just a stick. But if they tell you it was owned by one of the Group of Seven painters, it becomes something more. That works with everything in this industry - even a simple coaster becomes more interesting with context. A story is context. You telling me how you struggled to get something is more compelling than a write-up. Today everyone cares about brand and name before the story. Anyone can pay for a brand.
WILHELMINA MER — You can’t buy class [laughs].
IAN AFIF — You either trust the designer name you can research, or you trust me. At my store, I'm telling you what something is worth with nothing but faith. I have no interest in making you believe anything's worth anything - that's why my prices are probably lower than market. People get freaked out by that. You can tell when somebody likes design as an exercise in purchasing power, versus someone who has a mix of found things and important pieces. None of my personal furniture was deliberately bought - it was found or made its way into my life. I'm never really on the trail for specific designers or pieces. Things come to you when you step in the way of whatever this is. I'm very lucky to do this.
MICHELLE AGNEW — How did you come up with the name, Jaspa?
IAN AFIF — I misspelled the name of a pottery company I was trying to name it after. I used to collect West German pottery, which is inexpensive, and in abundance. which makes it easy to collect - they're all different. They’re fired in a special kind of kiln, so they all have this distinct look. Westerman, Fat Lava - you know what it looks like, it's everywhere. There was a company called Jasba, but I thought it was called Jaspa, so I named it that. It was just a happy accident.
WILHELMINA MER — Rock the Jasba.
IAN AFIF — This chair was made by Ann Kurdiak, a creative person who lived down the block from the shop for about 40 years. She came from aristocracy and had resources to pursue her passion. She took welding and sculpting classes at Seneca or George Brown in the 70’s, where she made these chairs. Her real thing was supporting young artists - she'd go to [Ontario College of Art & Design] fairs and buy everything from artists she believed in.
WILHELMINA MER — [Looking at catalogue] Oh, she just passed.
IAN AFIF — Yeah, a couple months before I bought the work, in 2023. After I bought it all, I started getting haunted by this woman. I bought and sold a lot of her stuff, and, believe in ghosts or not…
WILHELMINA MER — We believe in ghosts. You were getting haunted? Tell us everything.
IAN AFIF — I would wake up in the middle of the night and there would be a woman with long blonde hair, just like Anne, standing at the edge of my bed, glowing light, just looking at me. Another night she was hanging off my door frame looking at me. It had to have been her. Who else? There were three or four visitations that night.
WILHELMINA MER — She must have been curious about you.
IAN AFIF — She didn't ask questions - she was just a glowing form of energy in her shape. After a couple weeks, she got okay with me. I put together a show of her work - she'd never shown it before. Partly because she took ideas from others. Like the blade chair, we have a photo of another chair someone else made that's identical. That's what she would do - find work she liked and remake it for herself.
IAN AFIF — Yeah. I was invited to the estate sale. The pieces weren't cheap - I had to borrow money to buy a lot of it. I bought everything - this was her dining chair. It was great work though. Her brother was a huge fan of Rietveld, making hobbyist versions of his work. The family gave me that sculpture he made, since he's also passed.
NICHOLAS GILMORE — That's funky.
IAN AFIF — There’s so much weird lore about it - Ann and I had the same shoe size and both wore Trippens, this weird German walking shoe. It was cosmic synchronicity. After the show, I got to keep whichever piece doesn't sell. She wasn't a furniture designer, so there are these solutions to fake problems. Hobbyist design has issues you run into when you don't know how things work. This chair was so bottom-heavy she had to add more points of contact - six points - or you couldn't sit on it.
NICHOLAS GILMORE — Of all the people represented in this store, is there anyone you’d want to have dinner with?
IAN AFIF — The shop is filled with unfiltered thoughts. I wouldn't want to sit with all of them at once. I think with the work I carry, I get to know everything I want and need to know from the work itself. That's enough for me. The second you start learning more about people, the mystery fades, and I like the mystery.
NICHOLAS GILMORE — Yeah, after the artist creates their work, it's an offering. It's up to the viewer to experience the piece.
IAN AFIF — Yeah, I was at a gallery once and someone said "It's not my job to figure out what you're trying to do." I both agree and disagree - you have to accept whatever you're able to read into the work at that time, but you also have to take responsibility for what you're putting out into the world. For Ann, I don't need to know more. After this period she made three or four hundred pieces of jewelry - huge copper and bronze medallions with crystals.
IAN AFIF — I think I was lied to about what that was - it's just a huge piece of sequined fabric, something I would buy. Someone told me it was a big Odd Fellows secret society grand tapestry, but the more I look at it, the less I believe that. I think it's just a theater costume - eleven feet, 60 pounds of costume tapestry.
WILHELMINA MER — I want it.
IAN AFIF — You can have it.
NICHOLAS GILMORE — What about this chair? This was the first thing that caught my eye when I walked in.
NICHOLAS GILMORE — That's very neat. I don't think we've ever seen that.
IAN AFIF — It's a super chair. The Bistro versions are quite collectible now. This specific base isn't in the catalog, which makes it rare. The disc that guards the seat keeps breaking - that's why I don't sit in it. But it reclines, tilts - pretty fantastic for a 110-year-old chair. It's got the ball feet that everyone goes crazy for. That was a real Viennese thing. It's just a nice piece, weird and untouched. Joseph Hoffman was another big Viennese designer who really popularized that. It was a whole school that did this stuff.
WILHELMINA MER — How about this boar’s head? Not for sale?
IAN AFIF — I have a number on it.
WILHELMINA MER — Let’s hear the story.
IAN AFIF — I pulled that out of a barn in Hudson. It was the first big piece I bought for the New York apartment. It was hung on a single nail in the concrete. It's fiberglass, not a mold because the perspective's way off. It's just this shape that gets hung on a wall. Maybe it was for a butcher shop, but I wouldn't read it that way. It's one of those things that could be in an empty room and make sense on its own.
IAN AFIF — I found them walking down the street.
WILHELMINA MER — You really do attract these things. I want to see your birth chart.
IAN AFIF — I'll give it to you. This is a 1930s school project with different drawings of cars and trains initialized by the kids. It's weird, but I love it. My partner and I split the cost at the time. When we split, I said, here, take this amazing marble dresser, and I’ll take this drawing on a tapestry made by schoolchildren.
NICHOLAS GILMORE — The old bait and switch. Do you ever find it hard to sell the pieces you have in the shop?
IAN AFIF — For sure. I think ultimately you know that this art has to become a kind of tool. When you do this for work, you're inevitably going to start selling stuff you don't want to sell. Especially when you're less financially focused, you're only buying what you like. I like everything I buy. It's a little bit of you every time you sell something, not to make it deeper than it is. But there comes a point where you know when something can't be bought and sold—you've got to keep it. It's a process. There’s a real letting go.
IAN AFIF — Paying rent, you know. The utilities and practicalities of life. At the end of the day, it's a passion and a love, but also a tool for bread. I can't give everything. This piece, for example, just spoke to me. I like all the blue in it. It’s where I got my logo from. It's just one of those images that just sits here now.
NICHOLAS GILMORE — That's a funny thing about art in general—it's a subjective experience if you appreciate art beyond its economic value.
IAN AFIF — That's an important separation for a buyer or appreciator. I know the distinction between what I like versus what's smart to buy. When I see something, I recognize the difference. People who are more sensitive to what they like find decision-making different depending on their financial background. If I go to a store and see a jacket priced at $1,300, I've already talked myself out of it before trying it on. I'm sure it's a great jacket, but I can't afford it, so I'm walking away. I think people have that same response with art—it becomes unapproachable. There are so many factors involved. It's an investment, and, these are impractical things—physically impractical, but emotionally and spiritually significant, but with a kind of nothingness to it at the same time.
NICHOLAS GILMORE — As a musician, I think about a painting's provenance and the artist's talent. Many people need to validate art by saying it's good because it's worth a lot of money or because this or that person painted it.
IAN AFIF — It's tough because it unfairly negates everything else, creating a little bubble. It makes an already small market even smaller. There's a disconnect between interface and appreciation. In the Canadian art market, our market doesn't know anything. We're not taught to appreciate art. Nobody knows our artists. For example, I have this book called Eclectic Eve, all about female Canadian artists. I’d only ever heard of three or four names here. It’s a great resource.
IAN AFIF — This thing? I love it. Got it at an auction in New York. It's missing the top. At the same auction there was another lot with three smaller sculptures - one was definitely the top for this. I knew the dealer who bought it but he wouldn't sell it to me. It's great though, just one of those unknown things. You'd think someone making stuff like this has made more work you could find, but none of my research has gone anywhere. I think the top was a caterpillar's head.
WILHELMINA MER — Big wizard energy.
IAN AFIF — Yeah, it's double sided. I really wish it came with the top. It hasn't sold, but I'm kind of happy about that. Depending on who wanted to buy it, I might call it back. I want to find that auction because it's annoying that I wasn't able to complete it back then.
NICHOLAS GILMORE — These are just unknown, no artist?
IAN AFIF — On the auction it was listed as "a trio of folk art, native art stone, figural sculptures." That's good art.
IAN AFIF — I did. I'm not very good with photos.
NICHOLAS GILMORE — You’ve got your coat all dirty. It's the pleasure of wearing black.
WILHELMINA MER — Oh, I didn’t notice. Yes, I rolled around on the ground, taking pictures. I had a good time, so what?