Natalie Reis, Shopdropping and Les Fleurs du Mal Magazine

February 4th, 2009

Natalie Reis is currently exhibiting a series of reinterpreted classic paintings (now with more added phalli). The series is entitled Idols & Creatures and it’s at Galerie Trois Points (suite 520 in the Belgo building: 372, Ste-Catherine W) until February 14th. Snap! TV has a cool video up that will give y’all a fairly good idea of what the exhibition is all about. It also briefly mentions how Reis will be participating to the 2009 Montreal Biennale via Shopdropping Montreal, “a Montreal based collective made up of artists and designers who take part in the act of shopdropping.” Shopdropping is defined by Ryan Watkins-Hughes, creator of shopdropping.net, as the act of covertly placing merchandise on display in a store, a form of reverse shoplifting and culture jamming.

Natalie is also featured in the latest issue (Vol3, N1) of awesome, free and independently published art magazine Les Fleurs du Mal. On page 4 and 5, Benjamin Klein writes about Got Face, Natalie’s series of Karla Homolka paintings in which she explores notions of deceptive and lethal seduction. The magazine is definitely worth the look, as it is well-curated and really an all-around fun and often insightful read. Props to Annie Briard and Edwin Janzen for editing brilliant work, like an in-depth analysis of the aristocrats joke (p. 30), an overview of the history of the laugh track (p. 13), an article on performance artist Josh Schwebel (p. 6) and one on video artist Isabelle Pauwels (p. 17).

I got my copy of the magazine at breakfast hotspot Dusty’s (4510 Parc), but you can also find it in various “artist-run centres and galleries, cafes, restaurants, clubs, cinemas, theatres, university campuses and other selected locations throughout central Montreal, as well as certain locations across Canada and abroad.” According to the editorial, it seems like this will be Les Fleurs du Mal’s last print issue, as it will soon be moving online. Join the magazine’s facebook group to find out when Annie and Edwin do the big jump!