Underwater with John Ancheta, or notes on an opening (TONIGHT!)

I’ve known John Ancheta for far too long. I’ve seen his hair grow, and then get cut, and then grow again. Like one of those Barbie head-dolls that everyone wanted as a kid. But that Barbie toy never grew up to become one of the most interesting and challenging contemporary painters in the Canadian/International art scene. John, on the other hand, did.

He’s been one of my absolute favourite painters, nay artists, for years. His dedication to his craft, understanding of place within a vast historical context, and unwillingness to settle for a certain set or style of aesthetics never ceases to astound me. The fact that I always, always want to take my clothes off and get it on with his canvases is just a bonus.

Tonight, from 6-8pm, he’ll unveil his new, distinctively different body of work, Aquacades, completed this past year at Battat Contemporary (7245 Rue Alexandra, Suite #101) It runs until April the 10th.

It’s a compelling, less accessible body of work than some of his previous stuff, and extremely rewarding - if you spend the time with it that it asks of you. Imagine someone you meet at a party who you’re not necessarily lusty after within the first 10 seconds, but who slowly grows on you until you can’t imagine your intimate landscape without their presence.

And landscape is a good word to use when talking about John’s work, as he infuses his pieces with a type of organic sensibility that defies or perhaps works in dissonant harmony with his meticulous execution and process. We’ve been talking about that process and the elements that inform it for some time now, so I present here one of our many conversations, this one concerning specifically the 2 shows he has up now.

If you’re blessed enough to find yourself in Montreal tonight, then go and see what I’m talking about. Well worth the movement towards, guaranteed.

You have 2 shows up in Montreal currently – one at the GAO and one at Battat. What’s it like to simultaneously present work in the same city?

The two shows are difficult to compare, really. The exhibition at the GAO is a retrospect of an older body of work while the pieces at the Battat Contemporary are from a completely new series.

My art practice has changed considerably over the past year. Installing the show at the GAO was really interesting. Seeing the old work again gave me a new perspective on that time. But ultimately, my thoughts are on my new direction.

I know that this body of work is quite a departure from your last series. Could you talk a bit about this transition and your new direction?

I see it as a departure, in several ways. What strikes me now about my older work is the focus I had at that time on a dynamic and painterly poetic. I think I was really concerned with proving to myself that I could really paint. The GAO show speaks to my roots as a painter - my education here in Montreal, my love for the painterly tradition…

However, that direction started to unravel towards the end of 2008. I think you can see it in a particular painting at GAO titled Camouflage. I included it in the exhibition purposefully as to me it signaled an end. I had worked that painting over and over trying to take it somewhere. To make it work, I had to retreat back to what I knew, what I had developed. It couldn’t go any further.

I quite like that painting, though it raised more than a few eyebrows at the show. It’s the most difficult piece in the exhibition. What came afterwards was a fairly clean break. I went to London, and came back knowing more or less what I wanted to do. I messed around for a few months and then put down my large bristle brushes, let go of thick painterly surfaces and started over again. I wanted to see what would happen if I took away all my tricks, what was left.

One of the things that struck me in your show at GAO was imagery (however abstracted) and I’d love you to talk about the process of how you go about defining or creating your visual landscape.

My painting process at that time was really intuitive and spontaneous. I was working very fast, finishing the paintings before they dried in order to build fluid image. Primarily I worked from found photographs, mainly of farmers working in fields, anything that put me back into the space of my early years growing up in rural Canada.

Once the motif was loosely developed I would abandon the photo and let the painting unfold. The narratives that emerged are largely based on formative experiences. As an American growing up in what I guess you could call a ‘subversive’ ex-pat community, I was isolated from the surrounding rural inhabitants. My relationship to the land was different as it was filtered through the eyes of my specific community that had this utopic dream of going back-to-the-land. The work speaks to my alien surroundings, to the sense of being in-between something indefinable. They’re cold war paintings as seen through the eyes of a child. The work is descriptive as much as it is dreamed and imagined.

Your latest series seems to have less definite imagery involved. Was the visual research process different?

In a sense, for me, the psychic space of my new work has not changed all that much. What has changed, (quite dramatically I suppose), is how I approach that space. In the older work I was after a sort of heightened yet suspended drama. My new work over the past year has been a process of emptying out all that felt comfortable, as I have said - my hand writing, my typical narratives and figures.

Formally speaking, what remains has become in some ways more clearly articulated through the use of stencils and flat color. At the same time, what can be sensed is admittedly more obscure. The new work is more a relationship between cartography and landscape.

Colour is such an integral part of your work. How does your relationship to colour function?

The sensation of colour is critical to my artistic practice. It’s similar to the sense of smell or taste. It’s immediate, visceral. I dwell less on an inherent attraction to certain colours and more on the relationship between colors.

Who are some of the artists you’re most moved by? Do you think their influences can be seen in your work at all?

Mmm. I always find that a really difficult question to answer. I recently saw a performance by Moheb Soliman that completely blew me away: http://www.habibalbi.blogspot.com/.

I would say music has the strongest and certainly the longest affect on me. Being moved always seems to be about a passing moment, so its difficult to talk about. I am not sure one could sense the painters I love in my newer work. Maybe Goya.

Recently I have been looking at the work of Julie Mehretu - it’s brilliant, what can I say? Who else? Jules De Balincourt. Cai Guo Chiang - I was able to see Head On being installed at the Guggenheim. I missed the show but got to watch the install, wolves being taken out of crates and shaped into flight up the winding staircase, it was unbelievable. I actually hung the show at Battat today and I could clearly see Joy Division’s album Unknown Pleasures. I have no idea what comes across at this point, I guess I’ll see it more in hindsight.

What are some of the joys of painting for you? What are some of the parts that you painfully push through?

The isolation is sometimes difficult. My current process right now entails a lot of uncertainty until the very last stage, which I love. The feeling of peeling stencils to see what comes together is always amazing. I think that painting is a lot like any practice: you have to keep on going and not ask yourself the tough questions when you are feeling low. Enjoy it when it’s working, reflect upon it when reflection comes, and never forget to listen. I recently had an accident in the studio that destroyed a painting scheduled to be shipped to an upcoming show. Things like that are painful for sure.

All in all I love making images, it gives so much back to me.

There seems to be a highly evolved sensuality in your work. Is this something that you hope people pick up on?

Sensuality….mmm…..

I guess I often feel that the studio is the only place that I can really be decadent in my exaggerations, where I can embellish. I can relish in what I love and I hope to share that with a lot of people.

I find that the process of creation itself is so different to a finished work. A little death occurs when a work is done…

I think I used to agonize over the impact of each painting. Now I tend to focus more on a body of work, which makes each ‘death’ a little easier. Each piece becomes more of a single gesture towards a larger articulation. In this way, the peaks and valleys get smaller and easier to traverse. It’s a longer process, but challenging in an exciting way.

What you got coming up after these shows?

I have a show in Milan at the end of March. I just finished my website, and I am going to Madrid to see the Goya collection at the Prado. Things are good.

Filed under art shows, artists, interviews, local, painting | Tags: Battat Gallery, john ancheta, painting | Comment (0)

In the hall, or perhaps land, of wonders…

Kim Kielhofner, an American-landed-Canadian-potential-Brit has been working and living in Montreal for years and years now, or at least a good chunk of time. I have had the pleasure of working with her on several projects, and of watching her practice become more intensely refined and focused as the days have worn by.

She is soon to be elsewhere for awhile as she heads to Central St. Martins for a Masters this fall, but there are plenty of opportunities to see her work in the city as she departs.

The first one is coming up for the month of September at the Centre Communautaire Elgar on Nun’s Island. While a bit of a drive/walk/bike, her drawings held therein are absolutely worth the visit. Entitled, In the Hall of Wonders, the show is a look at some of her most recent illustrative work created in the last few months.

Then, for Art Pop 2009, Kim is showing her latest video installation piece, A Dragnet for Lost Feelings, about train robbing ancestors, the mythology of the wild west, and the reality of violence and memory within families. Kielhofner has a poignancy, humour and ability to transform intense subject matters into an aesthetic and visceral language all her own. I do believe she is very much an emerging artist to keep an eye on.

If you heed my advice, and want to keep your eyeballs on her developing practice, the vernissage for In the Hall of Wonders is happening tomorrow night starting at 7 pm, and if you miss it, you can always go to see her work until October 16th at the Centre Communautaire Elgar. Again, google map, kids, google map.

Filed under art shows, artists, illustration, local, vernissage | Tags: Central St Martins, Centre Communautaire Elgar, Kim Kielhofner | Comment (0)

It’s Thursday so you know what that means….

There are like 400 openings in Montreal tonight, and I am going to attempt to make it to all of them. Here, in no particular order (or maybe, in order of geography, really, that geography being based on things closest to and then furthest away from my home, which of course, is how everything should be done):

La Rentreé chez Clark - Centre d’art et de diffusion CLARK, 5455 de Gaspé, local 114 8pm-11:55pm

The first exhibition of the season from Centre Clark, it seems as if this exhibition is one of those 2-in-1 jobs. I think. Hard to say, a wee confusing. I am a confused person, generally. But there is definitely going to be one exhibition here entitled Le Son a des Jambes, curated by Eric Mattson featuring exploratory reflections about sound as material seen (or heard, or otherwise) through the eyes and hands of Jérôme Fortin, Jean-Pierre Gauthier, and Minibloc. The title playfully extrapolates ideas that John Cage was digging around when he coined the phrase « Sound has no legs to stand on ».

The other part of the evening and of the Clark gallery might be a salon from 1000 years ago. Yeah. I don’t know. I will change this blog-post once I have been and so you won’t even remember that this sentence was fraught with such muddled uncertainty.

At any and all rates, it’s always a fun time going to the first show of the season, and it’s always fun at Clark, so no chance of screwing this one up, friends.

The Story of Flying Robert - Red Bird Gallery and Studios, 135 Van Horne, 7pm-midnight

The Story of Flying Robert is the third collaborative showing by Rebecca Rosen and Naomi Cook, who are also the co-directors of the Red Bird. For the exhibition, Cook and Rosen illustrate in large-scale narrative format Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann’s morality folktale about a boy and his umbrella. The drawing here is one of the examples of Naomi’s work.

Thesis Show, Margaret’s Mountain - MFA Gallery, Concordia Fine Arts Building, 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd

Elisabeth Belliveau has been doing animation for some time now, but just the still images alone from this 13-minute short are making me excited about going down to check out the film in full. A rare chance to see the work with the artist in attendance, and to get a chance to go to the best building at Concordia, the old fine arts building, which is personally my favourite of the lot.

Stick-in-the-mud & Équations et Idylles Identitaires - Galerie [sas] , Belgo Building, 372 Ste Catherine ouest, Space 416, 5:00-8:00pm

This one is definitely a triple exposition, no question, 3 shows from 3 local artists: Équations et Idylles Identitaires (2Fik) Bataille (Denise Santillan) and Stick-in-the mud (Marilyne Blais).

I have appreciated 2Fik’s work for quite some time now and am looking forward to seeing it in the flesh, as it were. His photography straddles lines of gender, sexuality, cultural understanding and race in very funny, very daring and very heartening ways. Seriously. I mean that. And I know that thousands of academic papers across North America have used the sentence I just did, but unlike said papers, 2Fik’s work itself blasts through my potential clichés and turns them into something of more substance. I promise.

Marilyne Blais and Denise Santillan are both illustrators. Denise Santillan uses her pen feathers to explore a the subject of hair. In contrast to her large-scale works, Blais’ miniratures create strange and ambivalent worlds derived more from dreams than from reality. One gets the impression of characters from a remote or perhaps even forgotten region where no civil code exists. Yeah, sounds like my kind of place.

I am sorry. Sincerely, Frankenstein‘ - The Emporium Gallery, 3035 St. Antoine Ouest, 7pm-11pm

I am sorry. Sincerely, Frankenstein’ is a new collection of photographs by Montreal-based photographer, Gordon Ball. Depicting self-destruction in relation to the social order, in both a fantastical and journalistic capacity, ‘I am sorry. Sincerely, Frankenstein’ is Ball’s first solo exhibition in Montreal in over 2 years. Which means it better be really, really good. Ha ha. Ahhh……

Finally, after all of that moving around on bus and bike or gasp….CAB….go to Darling Thursdays at the Darling Foundry (745 rue Ottawa, google map it folks!) and shake all the bits that weren’t moving during the rest of the evening. It’s from 5-10pm so you’re going to have to make yourself a little schedule. Do that this morning, and then lamenate it. Plastic makes everything just that much nicer.

Filed under art shows, local | Tags: 2Fik, Centre Clark, Darling Foundry, Denise Santillan, Elisabeth Belliveau, Emporium Gallery, Eric Mattson, Gordon Ball, Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Jerome Fortin, Marilyne Blais, Minibloc, Naomi Cook, Rebecca Rosen, Red Bird | Comment (0)

Dusty Peas, blowing your mind from deep in Ontario

The drawing-printmaking-rabble-rousing duo Jamie Q and James Kirkpatrick have been jammin’ on collaborative works together for some time now, but not forever. From the bowels of London, Ontario, their minds seem to mesh in the most cohesive ways, explaining how they are able to present such a playful and consistent body of work as a duo so early on in their practice together.

They recently completed an artist residency and will be unfurling and folding the fruits of their labour at the Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore tonight at 7 p.m., right here in Montreal, 211 Rue Bernard…

It looks like pretty mind-blowing work. They’ve even silkscreened a spaceship folks can assemble themselves. I am a little too excited to get down to the Bookstore tonight and see their finished product in all its glory…

I sat down with them over space, time & the internet recently to ask some questions about their artistic process and to find out, for once and for all, what is the what. The answers are pretty friggin’ illuminating, so I hope you enjoy their notions and all as much as I have.

1. could you describe for all the folks out there who’s in your collective and what your deal is? ie if you have a mandate, if you even consider yourselves a collective…just some basics.

Dusty Peas is James Kirkpatrick and Jamie Q.. we think of ourselves as a collaborative art team more than a collective. But we also feel like we are part of a larger community of people doing creative stuff, one without a name or mandate. We don’t have a mandate as Dusty Peas either… we’d rather not be tied down to a formal set of rules. Maybe that is a sort of mandate… that whatever we make will be pretty unconstrained and open to possibility.

JQ – I come from more of a sculpture background, so doing collaborative drawings is a pretty new thing for me. I did that guest artist project with you, Kit, at silence is not (always) a good medicine, and I’ve done drawings with other people where it’s more like a game in which everyone passes drawings around. But this is the first time I’ve been making drawings collaboratively as a regular part of what I do.

Filed under art shows, artists, illustration, out-of-town, vernissage | Tags: events, illustration, james kirkpatrick, jamie q | Comment (1)

Who doesn’t want another excuse to make a sketchbook?

Personally, I think it’s always a good idea to have at least one sketchbook on the go, as the little friends above will testify to. Over here, at the Art House Coop website, you can sign up for this pretty interesting looking project where they send you a sketchbook, which you then fill up or leave empty or smear honey in, and then send it back to them by mid-December-ish. Then your book, alongisde countless others, will go on a tour through the U.S. of A. They are even offering to bring them to your city if you can find a gallery to host the event. All in all, it seems like a really fun thing to do, and a great motivator for those who like this kind of thing but need external forces to help push their inertia button into the  ”on” mode.

You DO have to pay for the sketchbook, but it’s a small fee considering the scope of the project. If you decided to head over to their website to take a look at this in further detail, consider sticking around, they’ve got a neat thing going on worth poking at.

Filed under art calls/appels, art shows, illustration | Tags: Art House Coop, illustration, project, sketchbooks | Comment (0)

Proof 16

Attention Torontonians! Gallery 44 is having their Proof 16 show again and it’s a good one. One of our favorite Montreal artists Katie has some amazing self-portrait photo based weavings in the show. Here’s the details from Gallery 44.

Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography
401 Richmond St W. Suite 120 Toronto ON M5V 3A8 www.gallery44.org 416.979.3941

Proof 16
Gallery 44’s annual exhibition of emerging Canadian photographer’s works

Tanya Busse, Sarah Febbraro, Katie Jung, Yuriko Kubota, Mark André Pennock, Sabrina Russo, Jim Verburg, Cameron Young

July 10 – August 8, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday July 10, 6 – 9 pm, artists in attendance
Artist in residency talk: Friday July 10, 6 pm

Gallery 44’s annual exhibition of emerging artists features the latest photographic practices from across the country. This year’s exhibition is unique for its representation of a diverse range of media including sculptural and hand crafted pieces. The show includes a book work (Busse), images from YouTube (Febbraro), jacquard weavings (Jung), multiple prints mounted together with layers sliced away (Kubota), a video work (Pennock), an interactive table installation and flipbook animation (Russo) and gum bichromate prints (Young). Gallery 44’s 2009 artist in residence is Jim Verburg, whose multimedia installation is a culmination of his work during the residency.

Filed under art shows, artists, local, out-of-town, photography | Tags: gallery 44, katie jung, proof 16, toronto, weavings | Comment (1)

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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Filed under artists, events, gallery, illustration, local, painting, performance, photography, printmaking, vernissage, websites | Tags: 123Klan, Alexi Hobbs, Amber Albrecht, Andrea Kastner, Astro, Becky Emlaw, Ben Pobjoy, Colin Lyons, Corpusse, Corrie Peterson, Dan Buller, Daniel Nessler, Danielle Levy, Dave Arnold, Emporium Gallery, Fangs, Galerie Push, General 54, Jayce Yam, John Player, Julien Ceccaldi, Julien de Repentigny, Katie Earle, Kim Kielhofner, Kit Malo, Knurl, Konan Cook, Lisa Wilson, Mark Dixon, Naomi Cook, Oksana, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, Rachel Berger, RAGE5, Rebecca Rosen, Red Bird, Robb Jamieson, Sarah Courtemanche, Sean Orena, Shannon Kelly, Suoni per il popolo, The Unireverse, Zoobizarre | Comment (0)

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.

Filed under art shows, artists, illustration, local, printmaking, vernissage | Tags: Galerie Push, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, St.Michael's Printshop | Comment (0)

Of those about to flit off into the *real* world to taste the delights it has to offer.

Yes, the title says it all.  You know exactly what I’m talking about. Just like Nathan here (right above you, with the polka-dot socks) shot by JJ Levine, does. We all know what’s going on. Next Tuesday is the opening for the 7th annual Concordia Graduating Students Art Exhibition, (What’s Up With All The Capitals I Wonder?).

Detailed Info about the show can be found here. It’s featuring work by Kakim Goh, Erik Osberg, Katie Jung, JJ Levine, Megan Cameron, Ali El-Darsa and others.

At Concordia,  in 2 places, both apparently of which will have wine (most important thing about vernissages, after all) - the VA Building (where the vernissage bits and pieces are primarily happening, which is on the corner of Rene-Levesque and Bishop) and in the EV building, 1515 de Maisonneuve Ouest, in room 1-715.

Filed under art shows, artists, local, vernissage | Tags: Concordia, graduating, vernissage | Comment (0)

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.

Filed under animation, art shows, artists, illustration, installation, local, painting, publications, review | Tags: Amy Lockhart, Drawn & Quarterly, La Centrale, Marc Bell | Comment (1)