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)

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)

Filed under animation, events, local | Tags: Alain Lefebvre, Amy Lockhart, Brandon Blommaert, Chad Van Gaalen, Christophe Jordache, Dominic Étienne Simard, Elisabeth Belliveau, Félix Dufour-Lapierre, Janice Tiefenbach, Jay White, Jenny Lin, Jessica MacCormack, Jon Davies, Josh Bonnetta, Karin Zuppiger, Karl Lemieux, Kate Crocker, Logan Macdonald, Malcolm Sutherland, Nancy Belzile, Rae Spoon, Rickie Lea Owens, Tara K Wells | Comment (0)