News and Reviews of Art Exhibitions at the Belgo Building by Bettina Forget
Here are my favourite four artworks currently on show in the Belgo building:
Sorel Cohen, Galerie David Browne
Left: Suzanne Déry, Galerie Lilian Rodriguez
Right: Kristy Boisvert & Samantha Scafidi, Visual Voice Art Gallery
Marie-Reine Mattera & Emanuelle Joly, sas gallery
The Visual Voice Art Gallery has turned into a room-sized travel-log. Artists Kristy Boisvert and Samantha Scafidi exhibit a collection of paintings, sketches, and photographs created during their recent trip to Ireland in their exhibition titled Sincerely, Ireland.
The artwork on display varies so much in style, medium and format, that you get the impression this is a group show of seven artists. My favourite paintings are the long, horizontal panoramas of the steep Cliffs of Moher, they capture Ireland’s Tolkienesque landscape perfectly. The whole gallery has been painted green for the occasion, and artists Scafidi and Boisvert promise jam sandwiches for the vernissage, since this is pretty much all they ate during their trip. Erin guh brawk.
Visual Voice Art Gallery
space 421
Kristy Boisvert and Samantha Scafidi
Sincerely, Ireland
exhibition period: July 31 - August 6, 2008
vernissage: July 31, 2008, 6pm - 9pm
www.visualvoicegallery.com
Galerie Donald Browne has just launched its summer exhibition Blood Sweat and Tears, featuring artworks by Paul Bureau, Michel de Broin, Sorel Cohen, Charles Stankievech and Eve K. Tremblay.
Donald Browne has a knack for curating exhibits with an implied narrative, and this show is no exception. A good example is the series of photographs by Michel de Broin and Eve K. Tremblay titled Honeymoons, which allows glimpses of a young couple frolicking in the woods. Pink panties around the ankles, ropes strung across trees, a shrouded figure sitting on a cooler - each image hides as much as it reveals. The old tale of Adam and Eve is retold by these two artists using a new array of symbols and visual associations. Though I prefer de Broin’s sculptural works, it’s interesting to see his twisted humor come through in this collaboration.
Galerie Donald Browne
space 524
Paul Bureau, Michel de Broin, Sorel Cohen, Charles Stankievech, and Eve K. Tremblay
Blood Sweat and Tears
exhibition period: July 22 - August 30, 2008
www.galeriedonaldbrowne.com
My favourite works of art on display in the Belgo building this past week:
Left: Maria Idilia Martins, “Revealing Box”, Visual Voice Art Gallery
Right: Peter Schuyff, Galerie Projex-Mtl
Left: Massimo Guerrera, “Au cœur du sujet”, Galerie Joyce Yahouda
Right: card from the “Apart” workshop exhibition, Skol
This is the last chance for you to see the exhibition Kaleidoscope Latin at the Visual Voice Art Gallery, featuring the works by Mariana Escribano and Maria Idilia Martins.
The Visual Voice Gallery is hosting a “Finissage”, a closing party, to bid farewell to their two Latin American artists on Friday, July 25, 2008 from 5pm - 7pm. A special guest for the evening will be New York poet Allan Andre, who will install his “Instant Poetry” table and (for a small donation) will write poems for you while you wait. As you come down the corridors of the Belgo’s fourth floor, just follow the sounds of Samba music and the clacking of an old typewriter.
Visual Voice Art Gallery
space 421
Mariana Escribano, Maria Idilia Martins
Kaleidoscope Latin
Exhibition period: July 3 - 26, 2008
Finissage: July 25, 2008, 5pm - 7pm
www.visualvoicegallery.com
As part of their summer workshop series, Skol is exhibiting the results of their Apart! workshop which ran from July 10 - 16, 2008.
Twelve artists from Montreal and the US collaborated in creating several installations which explore the idea of “borders”. The artworks are content driven rather than relying on aesthetics, which means that you have to take your time to explore each exhibit. Some installations are interactive, requiring the gallery visitor to participate in some action or documentation practices. Some ideas are charmingly simple, such as a small shelf with a pile of “bonus cards” for visitors to take. I drew a card allowing the holder of the card to request that the recipient forget everything which was just said (very useful, if you ask me!). I was tempted to snatch the whole stack…
Centre des arts actuels Skol
space 314
Daniela Ansovini, Nathalie Dio, Richard Cassidy, Youmna Chlala, Val Desjardins, Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen, Michelle Lacombe, Anna Leventhal, Noemi McComber, Danielle Neu, Pablo Rodriguez, Ben Schaafsma
Apart!
exhibition period: July 17 - August 15, 2008
www.skol.ca
Here are my favourite four artworks currently on display in the Belgo building:
Left: Michael Merrill, “I Never Saw” (detail), Galerie Roger Bellemare, Right: Carl Ostendarp, Galerie Projex-Mtl
Yves Tessier, Galerie Projex-Mtl
Jannick Deslauriers, “Léthé”, Galerie Lilian Rodriguez
The gallery Projex-Mtl has extended the exhibition featuring Carl Ostendarp, Peter Schuyff, and Yves Tessier by one week until July 26, 2008.
I already waxed poetic about Yves Tessier’s work in previous posts, but I’d like to make sure you also go and have a look at the prints by Carl Ostendarp. His deceptively simple but elegantly constructed compositions remind me of Matisse’s Jazz series. The negative spaces create an incredible tension and balance, and each print plays with the simple hand-shape in a totally new way. Funny, clever, and skilled.
Projex-Mtl
space 212
Carl Ostendarp, Peter Schuyff, Yves Tessier
exhibition period: June 12 - July 26, 2008
www.projex-mtl.com
Okay, I give up. There’s no way I can post every day during the summer months. Some galleries in the Belgo building are closed, and the exhibitions which are running extend over several months. Therefore the Belgo Report now changes to a summer schedule. I’ll post an exhibition review every Monday and Wednesday, and a “Favourite Four” photo reportage every Friday until the end of the summer.
Here’s a round-up of who is on a summer schedule:
Art 45 - space 220 - closed until September 5, 2008
Galerie B-312 - space 403 - closed until September 5, 2008
SBC Gallery - space 507 - closed until the end of September 2008
Optica - space 508 - closed until August 12, 2008
Galerie Joyce Yahouda - space 516 - July 17 - August 7: by appointment only
The rest of us are still busily beavering away…
It’s a bit slow right now - with many of the Belgo’s galleries on summer schedule, there aren’t enough new shows for me to write a critique every weekday. So, from now until the end of summer I’ll present my Favourite Four artworks currently on show in the Belgo every Friday.
Here they are:
Left: Mathieu Valade, “Monumental Toc”, Galerie sas, right: Lisette Lemieux, “20 février 2008″, Circa”
Left: Lorraine Simms, “Chicken”, Galerie Division, right: Mariana Escribano, “C-70″, Visual Voice Gallery