News and Reviews of Art Exhibitions at the Belgo Building by Bettina Forget
Opening soon at Galerie Division is their summer exhibition titled Material World, featuring photographs by Richard-Max Tremblay, paintings by Carmen Ruschiensky, and mixed-media works by Juliana Pivato.
Vernissage: Thursday, July 2, 2009, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Exhibition period: July 2 - August 8, 2009
Galerie Division
space 311
www.galeriedivision.com
Here’s a heads-up for artists: Skol has sent out a call for entries for a programme it calls Office for Archival Review (OAR). Deadline: July 8, 2009, 5:00 p.m. Here’s the short version of what they are looking for:
“As part of the Skool summer programming experiment at Centre des arts actuels Skol, the Office for Archival Review (OAR) is pleased to invite proposals to participate in a 5-week open studio project from 14 July to 15 August, 2009.
Applications should include:
1. Statement of interest and short biography (1 page max);
2. Curriculum Vitae (2 pages max);
3. Sample of past work (any of the following):
* Up to 5 images of recent work (.jpg, 1024×768, 72dpi, RGB) &/OR
* A weblink to one video &/OR
* A writing sample (5 pages max as Microsoft Word or PDF file).”
For more info, please get in touch with Skol at archives@skol.ca or visit www.skol.ca
Good luck!
Les Territoires
Lorna Bauer
Kaleidoscope from the exhibition Cycle of Return
June 12 - 30, 2009
Dear readers,
due to the summer schedule in the galleries of the Belgo I’m changing the posting format of the Belgo Report for the next few weeks to a “virtual tour”. I’ll be selecting a few interesting artworks currently on show in those galleries which valiantly remain open during the hot summer months. If there are vernissages or other events you’ll still hear about them, and there may be the occasional review, but until things cool down again the Report will essentially a Belgo Art Show.
Enjoy the summer!
Not a single event this week in Belgo’s galleries! Most galleries are switching to their summer programme, which means longer-running exhibitions, and some galleries have closed their doors for the summer. Here’s a list of who’s on vacation:
Galerie B-312 - closed until September 4, 2009
Visual Voice Art Gallery - closed June 22 - July 9, 2009
Centre d’exposition Circa - closed until September 12, 2009
Optica - closed until September 12, 2009
Galerie SBC - closed until September 11, 2009
The good news - the overwhelming majority of galleries will stay open. I’ll update the list should there be any changes.
This week’s picks focus on light and shadow - clockwise from top left:
Ed Pien, Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain - Lorna Bauer, Les Territoires - Lorraine Simms, Galerie Division - Thomas Kneubühler, Galerie Projex-Mtl
Currently at Visual Voice Art Gallery runs an exhibition of photographs by local artist Myriam Gaumond titled Qu’est-ce que tu regardes?
Gaumond revisits the field of portraiture and adds her own twist: all of her subjects are photographed from the back. We see only the back of the person’s head and the shoulders. Who the person is remains an enigma, we can only draw clues from their stance, their clothes, their hair. As though we’re standing in a queue at the supermarket or attending a rock concert, Gaumond’s images create a feeing of participation - as we share the subject’s gaze, we become part of the image.
Visual Voice Art Gallery
space 421
Myriam Gaumond
Qu’est-ce que tu regardes
exhibition period: June 11 - 20, 2009
www.visualvoicegallery.com
You have until the end of this week to check out the remarkable exhibition Recent Projects on Baghdad and Montreal by American artist Michael Rakowitz at the SCB Gallery. For the series of small sculptures titled The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, Rakowitz lovingly re-created the priceless artifacts which were looted from the Iraq Museum in Baghdad following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Constructed out of mundane materials such as cereal boxes, newspapers and magazines, they embody the profound tragedy of Iraq’s plundered heritage, and are also a poignant criticism of America’s role in the vanishing of an important part of Mesopotamian culture. Alongside the sculptures the artist placed small captions with quotes from art historians and curators commenting on the looting of the middle-eastern antiques: “The Iraq Museum in Bagdhad was broken into and most of its parts torn out.” (Dr. Donny George) - “They knew what they wanted and rushed to get what was most salable.” (William R. Polk) - “It is our shared history that’s at stake, and, in the wake of war, one that is vanishing chapter by chapter.” (Angela M. H. Schuster)
The soundtrack of a mid-eastern flavoured version of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” performed by the group Ayyoub permeates the air, complementing this exhibition’s story of fire and loss.
SBC Gallery
space 507
Michael Rakowitz
Recent Projects on Baghdad and Montreal
exhibition period: May 13 - June 20, 2009
www.sbcgallery.ca
Not much happening this week in the Belgo, as the galleries are getting ready for a long, hot summer. But the illustrators are busy!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
L’!llustre Galerie - Sonya Cormier - Workshop: “Le portfolio démystifié” - free for AIIQ members, $5 for non-members, starts at 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
L’!llustre Galerie - group exhibition of works created during the AIIQ’s Life Drawing Workshops - “Fleur de peau” - vernissage, 6:00 p.m.
This week’s picks feature portraiture with a wist. Clockwise from top left:
Lorraine Simms, Galerie Division - Myriam Gaumond, Visual Voice Art Gallery - Zilon, Galerie Kérozène - Alana Riley, Galerie Joyce Yahouda
Lorna Bauer
I’m back from my trip to Europe, and I realize I have some catching up to do! To start off with, here’s what’s happening in the galleries of the Belgo this week:
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Centre des arts actuels Skol - John Murchie - Master Class (for Skol members and by invitation), 6:15 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Galerie Kérozène - Zilon-Encre Noire - Live painting event, 7:00 p.m.
Visual Voice Art Gallery - Myriam Gaumond - vernissage, 6:00 p.m.
Galerie Joyce Yahouda - Alana Riley - Catalogue launch, 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Les Territoires - Lorna Bauer - vernissage, 5:00 p.m.