No Henge this Thursday

This Thursday, Chloe Lum and Yannick Desranleau, the two artists behind the creative duo Seripop, are inaugurating their first solo exhibition in Montreal (their first Canadian exhibition in almost 2 years). The art show “elaborates on their penchant for psychedelic exuberance through an immersive, silkscreen-based kaleidoscopic take over of the Emporium Gallery“.

Based in Montreal, Seripop has earned international attention for its stylistically distinct, silkscreened street posters which have been featured in notable books such as ‘New Vintage Type’, ‘New Masters of Poster Design’ and ‘Print Liberation: The Screen Printing Primer’ among many others. In addition to Seripop, Lum and Desranleau play in AIDS Wolf, a noise-rock band and Hamborghinni, a drums and electronics project.

Seripop’s No Henge exhibition will open at the Emporium Gallery (3035 St. Antoine Ouest #74) on Thursday, July 2nd from 7pm-11pm. The exhibition will also be open on Saturday, July 4th and Sunday, July 5th from 12pm-5pm.

Nicolás De Jesús - Grandeurs et décadences/The ball of the hallucinated carcasses

I am pretty excited about this exhibition that’s on until the 29th of June (so go this week!!) at the Centre Culturel Simón Bolívar, 394 de Maisonneuve ouest (métro Place-des-Arts). I’ve heard of neither the artist nor the venue, hence my inner sense of mystery is already stirred. 

The show itself is part of the First Peoples’ Festival 2009, (which officially ended Monday) and presents the prints of Mexican artist Nicolas De Jesus.

I am a big fan of traditional printmaking and Jesus’ art is reminiscent to me (at least of what I’ve seen) of some of the art of the grotesque artists that I am really quite fond of, more-than-friendly neighbours you wish would eat at your house every day.  

Here’s a write-up from the Festival website about Jesus’ work:

Born on December 6, 1960 in the Nahua region of the state of Guerrero, in Mexico, Nicolás developed his art in a family setting among the Ameyaltepec community, where the tradition of visual art on amatepaper has flourished for a long time. Nicolás’ work reflects a broad spectrum of personal experiences, from his origins in a traditional village to exile among immigrants transplanted in the USA. Through his prints, Nicolás defends his cultural identity and takes a critical view of planetary reality, through the prism of political tragicomedy. One of Nicolás’ intentions is to raise popular consciousness through art, for liberatory ends, motivating the work he does on murals in Mexico’s Aboriginal communities.

In October 2008, the artist donated this series of prints to the Committee for the Reconstruction of Petanac for fundraising purposes. All sales are earmarked for the reconstruction of this village of the department of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, razed by the Guatemalan army on July 14, 1982 after the massacre of its inhabitants, during an anti-insurrectional and state terrorist campaign.

The venue is open from Monday to Friday from noon to 7 pm so take a long lunch or quit your job to go.

Do Nothing At Casa

If you are the kind of person who likes to stay home doing nothing instead of going out dancing on St. Jean, then why not do nothing with a bunch of other people at Casa? Here’s their description of what I’m sure will be an interesting night of nothingness.

Starting at 6pm we will remove all furniture, all art on the walls, all information on the blackboard, turn off all pre-recorded music, turn off all lights. Once this is done, surrounded by the emptiness of an emptied Casa, we will simply be there, come join us in doing nothing (perhaps with a bit of chat, eat, drink). By midnight or so we will bring everything back to normal.

creature of the day breaks down creatures in the night

The creature of the day being myself, as it IS 3pm-ish, and so I wouldn’t be considered a creature in the night currently. Rational aside, I still managed to go to the second half of the animation festival Creatures in the Night last night, which was the open call-for-submissions part of the evening.

I have to admit that I was pretty blown away especially because I honestly find animation a medium with SUCH potential that it often has folks doing pretty annoying stuff. Like performance art, minus the potential. No, no, I’m kidding, I actually think they have a lot in common. Ha ha. Yeah…

One of the night’s crowd pleasures as far as I could tell was this animation from Christophe Jordache entitled, Enola Gay: (Sorry about the shoddy and short quality of this little morcel)

I have been forced, at various times or others, to use toilet paper to draw on in lieu of having anything else that will remotely function as paper, and the results have often been interesting, but it’s a hard medium to tackle. That Jordache drew on it for this entire animation (it was 2 minutes long in duration in total) is pretty amazing, and that his movements are as interesting and convincing as they are is quite unbelievable.

There were other works of greatness as well: Rickie Lea Owens had several very short, irreverant and fun pieces. Joshua Bonnetta’s Parting was an absolutely gorgeous 2 minutes of what seemed like rotoscoped dancers with a haunting soundtrack. Pretty hard to describe unless you see it, which I did, but I was mesmerized in a way that made trying to document it all at the same time quite difficult.

Finally, Karl Lemieux ended the night with an 8 minute 16mm film entitled, Moveuvement de Lumiere/Motion of Light. It looked to me like what might happen if Vic Muniz did a stop motion animation with his chocolate sauce instead of painting the Mona Lisa. Lemieux, who co-founded the film collective Double Negative, is clearly in his element with this intensely meditative and process-based work that is rooted in the experimental.

The funny thing is, I usually hate long animations (and 8 minutes is long for this kind of a thing) and I don’t often like experiemental filmmaking. I was absolutely BLOWN away by this piece however. You should truly try to get your hands on a copy of the film. I kindof couldn’t believe it. My jaw was hanging. I was aghast. For a moment, I was nothing more than a little beastie, scouraging for food and water. I was a Creature In the Night.

Thanks to Elizabeth Belliveau and articule for putting on such an amazing event.

Creatures in the Night - Update

Attention everyone, the Creatures in the Night screening of animation films (the one I mentionned previously, i.e. the one happening tonight) will take place at Blue Sky Doors at 9pm, at 5403B St. Laurent. Enter the parking lot and find the door with blue lights. The entrance is free.

And just to make this post worthier, here’s Walk for Walk by Amy Lockhart, who will be screening some work tonight (not necessarily/probably not this one). If you’re into her work as much as I am, make sure you don’t miss her talk tomorrow (Sunday, 3pm at articule, 262 Fairmount O). And go to her show, before it ends tomorrow night too.

June 18th: Thoday is Thrazy Thursday

Brace yourselves, there are (at least) three art openings to go to today (Thursday the 18th). They all start at 7pm, and I hope you can find a way to see everything without missing Corpusse’s performance at Zoobizarre later tonight. Details below:

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1. Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo at Galerie Push (7-9pm)

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of his intense and riveting creatures (see Kit’s post below). His Bestiairies show is staying at PUSH (5264 St. Laurent) until the 26th of July.

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2. The Emporium State of Mind (7-11pm)

The product of a collaboration between The Emporium Gallery (3035 St. Antoine Ouest #74) and Montreal State of Mind: a “media spanning group exhibition that will exemplify Montreal State of Mind’s mission- to promote the inherent creativity of those who live in Montreal done through the Emporium Gallery’s curation”. The exhibition features the work of Fangs, Amber Albrecht, Sean Orena, Alexi Hobbs, 123Klan, RAGE5, Robb Jamieson, Kit Malo (!), Julien de Repentigny, Astro, Dave Arnold, Ben Pobjoy and Danielle Levy. They are 13 Montreal-based visual artists, who will each be exhibiting one artwork priced at a maximum of $200CAD

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3. A Red Bird Studios Group Show at General 54, 7pm

General 54 (54 St-Viateur O) is hosting a group show put up by the artist-run arts space Red Bird. The exhibition showcases the work of its diverse group of painters, sculptors, graphic designers and silk screeners, each one exploring their individual practice and methodology within the material constraints of a 10″x10″ canvas board. There will also be cake supplied by Cocoa Locale (best cupcakes in town, and I know what I’m talking about) and 10% off everything in the store!

Artists include: Sarah Courtemanche, Dan Buller, Kit Malo (!), Oksana, Rebecca Rosen, Jayce Yam, Mark Dixon, Julien Ceccaldi (!), Katie Earle, John Player, Andrea Kastner, Colin Lyons, Corrie Peterson, Kim Kielhofner, Naomi Cook, Lisa Wilson, Daniel Nessler, Rachel Berger, Becky Emlaw, Shannon Kelly, Konan Cook, and others…

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4. Where you must be after all the art and cake (Zoobizarre, 9pm)

Starting at 9pm, Suoni per il popolo presents Corpusse (TO), The Unireverse (Mtl) and Knurl (TO). There will be everything you could need by then (besides art and cake), i.e. synth action, confrontational performance and raw noise.

I’m especially looking forward to seeing Corpusse do his thing: it will be primitive hardcore punk with a synthesizer, and it will involve glitter and nice make-up. Here’s a video of his last performance at Zoobizarre (6388 St-Hubert) in October 2006.

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Creatures in the Night (Saturday June 20th)

This Saturday June 20th, at 9pm, articule presents Creatures in the Night, An Independant Animation Event. This free screening will happen as part of “Popolo in the Parc” at Parc Lahaie (corner St. Laurent / St. Joseph).

It will feature animations by twenty Canadian artists: Janice Tiefenbach, Chad Van Gaalen, Amy Lockhart, Brandon Blommaert, Logan Macdonald, Tara K Wells, Jay White, Malcolm Sutherland, Kate Crocker, Alain Lefebvre, Christophe Jordache, Jessica MacCormack, Jenny Lin, Nancy Belzile, Rickie Lea Owens, Karl Lemieux, Dominic Étienne Simard, Félix Dufour-Lapierre, Josh Bonnetta and Karin Zuppiger.

In case of rain, just call the hotline: 514 842 9686

At 3pm the next day (Sunday June 21st), articule will be having a panel discussion with artists Jon Davies, Amy Lockhart, Elisabeth Belliveau, Jessica MacCormack and Rae Spoon. It will be followed by a cocktail “5 à 7.”

(Illustration: Julie Doucet, 2009)

New Lova

I gotta admit I am pretty much blown away by aladda the artists at the Richard Heller Gallery.

This image here is a work by Amy Bennett, one of the people on their roster. I highly recommend spending ten minutes taking a look at the rest of the work.

Amazzzzinnng.

PUSHing out Osvaldo’s Beasts

It is safe to say that Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, who is younger than you would think and very much brimming over with equal parts creative enthusiasm and dedicated focus, is one of THE contemporary artists working in Canada (or wherever he goes, stays, sleeps and tumbles) to pay attention to now and forever more. 

I have been a huge fan of his for several years since I first saw his large illustrations gracing the halls in the new, oddly sterile (or just odd & sterile) EV building at Concordia University. His use of intense mythologies and an unbelievable technique made me stop in my tracks, rabbit-caught-in-field-in-the-middle-of-the-hunt,  and compelled me to make immediate contact. Since then, we’ve had the honour of working with him for Art Pop 2008, and have seen more and more folks take the appropriate measures they should in regards to aiding and abetting his skills. 

Which is why I am SO excited to go to his latest show at Megan Bradley’s awesome PUSH gallery, which opens in only a few days, on the 18th of June. Penned Bestiaries, it is a series of new works that are smaller in format than some of his larger-scale works, but prove only how versatile an artist he is, as they translate the finesse of line and impact of symbolic gesture equally powerfully. There will be big stuff there too, for those who have…size issues. As well, he’ll be showing some of the lithographs he did recently at the St.Michael’s Printshop residency in Newfoundland, which is a medium he hasn’t explored in some time, so it’s a special treat to be able to look at these astounding prints. 

Honestly, this little write-up hardly does his complex and compelling work any justice at all, but one day I will put up a full-fledged interview with the guy and get it over with. Until then, mark off your calendars for this Thursday starting at 7pm, and get your butts over to PUSH and see for yourselves.

Art and BYOB at Apt #1

Tonight (Friday June 12th) at 8pm, musician Mekele, graphic designer TRUC and visual artist Francois Lalumière are staging APT No.1 (fb), a night of live music and visual arts in the artists’ home at 4275 de l’Esplanade Avenue.

Along with Adam Davidson and Emmanuel Galland, Lalumière will also be launching Contrebande/Contreband, a book/catalog based on a collaborative project set in 2008-2009, the fruit of an exhibition between Electroacoustic and Visual Arts presented at the VAV Gallery last October.

Did I mention it is a BYOB event and therefore, by definition, a go-to event?