Amy Lockhart @ La Centrale

I’m as late as late can be on the Amy Lockhart promo-bandwagon, and the vernissage and artist talk were both happening over a week ago. But trivialities aside, you should still try to catch her show over at La Centrale (4296 St. Laurent) before it ends on June 21st.

Amy’s style is weird, grotesque and recognizable, with a je-ne-sais-quoi that sets her appart from the ever-expanding crowd of underground independant DIY-ers. Two thumbs up fto her or having a discernable and unique vibe without ever limiting herself to a specific format/medium/character.

Her exhibition features art that range sfrom papier-maché sculptures and installations, to drawings, paintings, zines and superbly fluid animation of Marc Bell doodles. She works with a ton of different mediums and styles while remaining ‘edgy’ and ‘relevant.’

You can find more of her work in the Nog-A-Dod anthology, edited by Marc Bell and published by Conundrum Press (available at the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore, 211 Bernard O). The bookstore  also has a copy of the Ganzfeld 5: Japanada! anthology in stock, in which her work is also featured, among pages and pages of equally impressive artists.

Go get cultured!

This Sunday the 31st of May is Museum Day here in Montreal. We recommend you take advantage of all the free admission and try to see as much as possible. Here are the all participating museums (there’s a lot of them so you might be busy).

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Biosphère, Environment Museum
Canadian Centre for Architecture
Centre d’exposition La Prison-des-Patriotes
Centre d’histoire de Montréal
Centre historique des Sœurs de Sainte-Anne
Château Dufresne Museum
Château Ramezay Museum
Cinémathèque québécoise
Cité Historia
Darling Foundry, Visual Arts Centre
DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art
Écomusée du fier monde
Fur Trade at Lachine National Historic Site of Canada
Maison Saint-Gabriel
Marguerite-Bourgeoys Museum
McCord Museum of Canadian History
Montréal Biodôme
Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Montréal Planétarium
Montréal Science Centre
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Musée de Lachine
Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu
Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec
Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and history
Redpath Museum
Sir-George-Etienne-Cartier National Historic Site of Canada
Stewart Hall Art Gallery

phew!

Long Haul Open House

The Long Haul Studio is having an open house where you can poke around in all the studios and meet the artists. Here’s all the info
OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND…
Come to our open studio weekend! All 18 studios will be open to the voyeur in you.
~Meet the 28 artists that make up the Long Haul Collective.
~Enjoy the range of work spaces - from utterly chaotic to super sparse.
~Diverse creations will be on exhibit and/or for sale in each studio.
~Paintings, drawings, felted rugs, pillow, wood frames, photography, sculpture, body products, jewelry, glass, and more…
~Families, collectors, art enthusiasts, all are welcome!

WHEN: Saturday and Sunday may 30th and 31st, from noon - six
WHERE: The Long Haul / Le Corrid’art 450 / 454 Beaumont ave. Park Extension

Simon Schubert

Artist Simon Schubert creates 2-D scenes by folding paper slightly: http://www.simonschubert.de/papierarbeiten.html

(via @MuseumModernArt via @jkottke) (Spread the word and make the “via” chain longer)

Speed Limits @ the CCA

Speed Limits is the next CCA exhibition. Co-organised with the Wolfsonian-Florida International University, it “addresses the pivotal role played by speed in modern life: from art to architecture and urbanism to graphics and design to economics to the material culture of the eras of industry and information. It marks the centenary of the foundation of the Italian Futurist movement and is curated by Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Stanford Humanities Lab.”

No details have been given regarding the actual content of the exhibition, but that small paragraph I found on the CCA website (the one i just quoted) got me hooked - unlike the image they’re using for promotion, hence that lovely picture i google-imaged for y’alls.

The Vernissage for Speed Limits is happening on Tuesday, 19 May, 6 - 8 pm. The CCA is having a Post-vernissage that same day, 8 - 11 pm.

There will also be a Gallery Talk on Thursday, 21 May, at 7 pm where Curator Jeffrey T. Schnapp and exhibition designer Michael Maltzan will discuss the exhibition.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture is located at 1920, rue Baile.

Pavilion Projects et al. OFF BNL

I am going to give my own head and yours a wee break and be back soon with a layout of the OFF BNL events going on during the month of May in a bit. Soon, very soon. For those who just can’t wait the schedule can be found behind these words.

Biennale Madness

Ok folks, so the Montreal Biennale is half-over, but there is still plenty, plenty, plenty to check out. So much so that my head is spinning a little over here in my dark, damp corner of the world, and I just might need to put a plastic bag on my head to help breathe. That helps, right….?

The majority of what the Biennale has to offer runs throughout the month, so fear not, people, you haven’t missed much if you haven’t gone to see its diverse programming yet. General notes of interest for those wishing to embark on the Discover-MTL-BNL-09 train;

1. The festival has many locations, but the central one is L’Ecole Bourget, which is down, down, downtown. Its exact address, unlike my hairdressers, is not a mystery, and is 1230 de la Montagne, (coin Ste Catherine) which is close to Guy-Concordia and Peel Metro stations. 

2. The admission fee will set you back $5, or the price of a very good latte, unless you can prove you’re 12 or under, so I suggest dressing way, way down. Think beanie and giant lollipop. 

3. For other Biennale locations and a map of where things are at, check this link out. To download the full program, click here. 

At any and all rates, here, in a randomly assorted listing, are some of the things that I suggest you go and do, wrestle down, cajole, chomp on, etc….

1. The interactive exhibition at the Maison de la Culture Marie-Uguay (6052 Boulevard Monk, Metro Monk)

This exhibition, which runs all month long, is located in and focused on the fabulous South West of Montreal and its boroughs (St.Henri, Ville Emard, Verdun, Point St Charles, Little Burgundy, Etc) The idea behind the show, thought up by by the Educational Services of la Biennale de Montréal 2009 and artists Alexandre Castonguay and Michel Seta is to offer different communities in the neighbourhoods a chance to help create a soci-artistic project together through the use of various mediums and mechanisms. 

It sounds like it will be an interesting thing to check out, particularly in regards to how well it integrates the festival’s Open Culture mandate. There are guided tours every day for those interested in learning more about the project/contributing to its narrative, and the hours are listed here, at the very bottom of the page.

2. Saturday, May 16th (today!) + Sunday, May 17th (tomorrow!) from 12-5pm - last chance to see TAG in action - L’Ecole Bourget 

Who are TAG? and what do they do? These folks are a community of peeps interested in creative gaming in all its diverse forms. TAG (Technoculture, Art and Games) seems to be comprised of academics through Hexagram at Concordia and lots of creative partners. 

If you go to the Ecole Bourget today or tomorrow, you’ll get a chance to see their Biennale incarnation, Porous Lab, do its thing, or to participate in the creation of their games. To be honest, I only kindof get it, but that’s always where things get interesting, so go and find out how to become your own personal avatar in the Unicorn Candy Land Simulation I’ve been dreaming of for so long.

3. Every Saturday of the month at 2-3pm - Daniel Jolliffe’s Performance Mobile En Velo - 

This looks really cool - Daniel Jolliffe, an artist who combines sculpture practices and electronic technologies, is inviting everyone of us to call his hotline, at 1-888-500-1011 and record whatever message comes to mind, has been pre-planned for months, is a big fat lie, is the gorgeous, secret truth. Think Biennale Rant Line or some such. Then he takes his homemade megaphone, pictured above, and tours the city with your words and mumbles. 

Every Saturday for the duration of the fest, Jolliffe will be ready at 2pm at L’Ecole Bourget for you to come with your bike and chocolate croissant snaxs to tour around with his handmade sculpture to proudly (or sheepishly) declare to the world the recordings of each person that left him a message. 

Meanwhile, it’s almost 2pm, and it’s raining raining raining, so if you feel strong enough to go today, wear something plastic and yellow and red, (like his scultpure!) to keep the droplets at bay.

4. Thursday, May 21st from 5-8pm - Conference with Daniel Jolliffe and Alexandre Castonguay, L’Ecole Bourget

For descriptions of each artists work, please see individual write-ups. I couldn’t find any description of what this is going to be on the festival’s website, which could easily be due to over-saturation at this point with so many clicks and links and rain and music and coffee and. All this to say they will likely be talking about the use of electronics and technology in their works, as they both use digital medias in interactive and interesting ways, so if this sounds like your type of thing, then leave all the others behind in their nests and go. 

5. Saturday, May 23rd - Soundscapes/Paysages Sonores - La Sala Rossa, 4848 St Laurent

One of the only Biennale events off the Ecole Bourget map, this evening at the Sala will render live the music composed by David Ryshpan and inspired by the work of Rick Leong, one of Montreal’s youngest painterly stars. You can also go and check out both Leong and Ryshypan’s creations at the Ecole Bourget itself. 

6. Everday Exhibitions going on at L’Ecole Bourget 

There are many artists and exhibitions going on at L’Ecole Bourget for the Biennale, and for $5, you get the flexibility of going during whatever day of the week you like, as it’s open the entire month without fail daily. 

If you missed the documentary on the innovative and inspiring Roadsworth, you can still check his work out in and around L’Ecole Bourget when you go. He’s been commissioned to do work around the metro stations of the school, so walk slowly on de la Montagne so as not to miss his breathtaking creations. 

Once you’re in the bowels of the site,  (yes, yes, I used the word bowels, folks. Get over it) you can see Brazilian artist Cao Guimaraes‘ photo series Gambiarras (2002-2007) showing how São Paulo citizens rework their surroundings to make them more functional.

If you’re feeling the need to get your hands metaphorically dirty a bit more, then dive into Read + Write,  an interactive installation conceived of by artist Alexandre Castonguay in collaboration with Mathieu Bouchard, a digital arts engineer. The work invites participants to engrave texts, sounds and images on the wall and to control their appearance. This artwork is a drawing machine as well as a software interface. 

In a less directly-interactive vein, but no less engaging, is one of the program’s most exciting presentations from the perspective of my little bean-head, which is that of Richard Wentworth’s amazingly poetic and understated photo series, Making Do and Getting By (1973-2008). Wentworth’s humour and unique vision has produced a body of work that engages with the direct environment of everyday living in ways both immediately recognizable and unashamedly playful and touching. 

Also not to be missed is 8 Courts 1 Collectif, an open source cinema initiative curated and coordinated by Michèle Gauthier and Claudine Tissier. They chose 8 up-and-coming Montreal filmmakers: Michèle Gauthier, Benjamin Gueguen, Ahn Minh Truong, Yan Giroux, Sophie Goyette, Alexandre Gibault, Abeille Tard and Guy Édouin to direct a series of 8 short films based on content provided by the public via a website over the course of one year. Their website explains the process in greater detail. 

Phew. I feel overwhelmed already. In a good way, like when I am laying outside, in farm country, eyes closed and sunny, with a sudden onslaught of 10 kittens coming at me from all directions. Grinning-from-ear-to-ear-overwhelmed.

In fact, I feel so exhausted already that I think I am just going to get drunk alone in this dark, damp corner of mine, from now until the closing party on the 31st of May at, where else? L’Ecole Bourget. It’s a 5 a 7, so go early and then stay late, while you drool on all the napkins and leftover cheese plates as yet again, security has to be called, and you must be physically thrown out.

Vernissage Tonight at Galerie Push

I waked by Galerie Push (5264 St Laurent) yesterday as they were setting up for their new show, and what I saw of it was very pleasing. The paintings of Suzanne Déry & Justin Stephens caught my eyes and got me real excited with their nonchalant and humorous edge.

The couple will be sharing the space with Pierre-luc Brouillette and, momentarily tonight, with Dominique Sirois, a personal fave of mine who will be performing in the gallery at 6pm. The vernissage starts then, and it ends at 9pm. The show itself is up until the end of the month.

Montreal Biennale Still Kickin’ It with Roadsworth Doc…

                                 .

So yes, yes, I’ve been *somewhat* of an absent brat about the Biennale, as I was away in Toronto and beyond for a bit, but now I have returned, safe and sound, just in time to announce some of the goodies still on display and displock for us all to enjoy at this Biennale. 

Not to miss is this Friday’s screening of Crossing the Line, from 3 to 5pm at L’Ecole Bourget. Directed by Allan Kohl,  it’s going to be an intimate journey through the wonderful, wild and controversial land of artist and visionary Roadsworth. I, for one, can’t wait to see it. 

More to come, kiddies more to come.

Jack Goldstein

The Montreal-born, LA/New York-based artist with a solid body of work is especially known for his powerful and energetic paintings. Inspired by natural and technological phenomena, they speak loudly for and of a generation of explosivity and saturation. Goldstein’s scientific eye serves his dramatic aspirations in paintings that combine abstract purity and boiling violence.