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Past Exhibitions
Septembre 2 to Octobre 15 2006
Images imaginées
Anne Eaton Parker
Max Wyse
curators : Maurice Forget - Joyce Millar
Phrases like the “generation gap” or “cultural identity” imply not only social differences or unique characteristics among individuals, but on another level reflect what appears to be a complete breakdown in communications between the young and the old, and at the Canada/US political level, the knee-jerk reflex of Canadians in seeking to distance themselves from the culture of our southern neighbours. Yet, in reality, American artists have always been admired by Canadians, and the ties that bind individuals, countries and cultures are limitless. This becomes increasingly evident when exploring the paintings of Anne Eaton Parker and Max Wyse in the exhibition Images imaginées, curated by Maurice Forget and Joyce Millar, at the Stewart Hall Art Gallery from September 2nd to October 15th 2006.
Montreal painter, Max Wyse, in his early thirties, is originally from British Columbia; octogenarian Anne Eaton Parker, an American, has lived most of her life in New England. Yet their imaginative imagery and bizarre blending of fantasy and reality unite them in a surreal creative adventure. Working with objects and forms born of the unconscious and operating at seemingly cross-purposes with reality, Eaton Parker and Wyse offer up provocative paintings that defy a singular reading. They are, to repeat André Breton's much used quote of Lautréamont “…as beautiful as the chance encounter of an umbrella and a sewing machine on a dissecting table.”
It is the supreme power of the human mind, the imagination, that unites both artists. Like the Surrealists, there is an état d'esprit in their work that challenges the functioning of reality, releasing a personal freedom and social liberation embedded in the unconscious mind. To experience the work of Max Wyse and Anne Eaton Parker is much like one envisions escaping “the surly bounds of earth.”* Come and soar with the artists in their daringly extravagant, non-conformist flights into the extra-ordinary, and enjoy the eccentricities of their unique vision.
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is proud to present the work of these two artists. The Anne Eaton Parker portion of this exhibition was co-produced with the Arts Sutton Gallery, where her works were previously shown to much acclaim.
The catalogues Images imaginées : Anne Eaton Parker and Images imaginées : Max Wyse were published thanks to the financial support of Charles Alexander, Maurice Forget and the Stewart Hall Art Gallery.
* John Gillespie McGee (1922-1941), High Flight
October 28 to November 26 2006
ART RENTAL 2007: THE NEW COLLECTION
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is pleased to present Art Rental the annual exhibition of works from the Gallery's Art Rental and Sales Service.
Since 1967, the Art Rental and Sales Service of the Stewart Hall Art Gallery has taken an active role in the promotion of the arts in the community by offering more than a hundred figurative and abstract works of art to the public. Every fall, the Art Rental and Sales Service renews its collection by inviting the artists of the greater Montreal area to submit their works to a professional jury. After being presented in a yearly exhibition at the Gallery, the selected works – including drawings, paintings, photography, prints and mixed media - are available for sale or for rent for one year at the Art Rental and Sales Service, on the second floor of Stewart Hall.
It is as easy to rent a work of art from the Gallery as it is to borrow a book from the library. Works from the Art Rental Collection are framed and ready to hang and may be purchased, or borrowed for a limited time, offering an affordable way to bring art into the home or work environment.
Come and visit the exhibition and see how easy it is to become a discerning collector. Rent an art work during the exhibition and you may be the lucky winner of an original work of art.
December 2nd to January 258th 2007
Art in the City
Focus on Montreal Contemporary Art Galleries
Galerie Simon Blais
Galerie Trois Points
Galerie Pierre-François Ouellette
Stéphanie Béliveau
Michel Daigneault
Marie-Josée Laframboise
Carol Bernier
Clint Griffin
John Latour
Jean-Sébastien Denis
Nathalie Grimard
Mike Patten
Violaine Gaudreau
Paul Lacroix
Ed Pien
Louise Robert
Tomasz Szadkowski
Marc Séguin
George Vergette
With cultural guru Richard Florida claiming Montreal as a “rising star” in creative sectors in both Canada and the United States, and with plans underway for the Summit 2007: Montreal Culture Metropolis, the Stewart Hall Art Gallery is pleased to present this unique exhibition that focuses on three Montreal Contemporary Art Galleries. It is no secret that Montreal has a vibrant arts and culture scene, especially in the visual arts sector. In fact, over the past decade, this creative energy and dynamic exhibition scene has put Montreal front and centre both nationally and internationally. The exhibition Art in the City offers viewers the opportunity to see the works of sixteen artists from three of Montreal's leading contemporary galleries – Galerie Simon Blais, Galerie Trois Points and Pierre-François Ouellette Contemporary Art.
Open since 1989, Galerie Simon Blais specializes in Canadian and European abstract art, with an inventory consisting of works on paper and on canvas, as well as prints, photography and sculpture. The Gallery holds between six to ten solo exhibitions a year with either young contemporary artists or with major painters and sculptors who have contributed to the history of art in Quebec and Canada since 1945 (http://www.galeriesimonblais.com). Jocelyne Aumont's Galerie Trois Points, established in 1988, is dedicated exclusively to contemporary art with the objective to enhance the national and international recognition of artists whose work exemplifies today's dynamic art milieu in Quebec (http://www.galerietroispoints.qc.ca). Into its sixth year, the Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain gallery is committed to showing photography, new-media, drawing, sculpture, installation art, and works on paper by a diverse group of Canadian multidisciplinary artists – artists who endeavour to question the fluid boundaries between art and life in new and innovative ways (http://www.pfoac.com).
Three galleries, three very different approaches, but all with the same goal – to present the best of contemporary art in Montreal and to establish a viable art market whereby Canadian artists can compete on the international art scene. The world of contemporary art is often perplexing, pushing the traditional norms, sometimes beyond recognition. Art in the City not only provides visitors to Stewart Hall with the opportunity to become more familiar with the gallery system in Montreal, but also to gain a greater understanding of the daunting nature of contemporary art.
February 3rd to March 18th 2007
Under Construction
A look at architecture and constructed spaces
Thomas Corriveau - Martin Désilets - Guillaume Lachapelle - Sean Whalley
Buildings command a strong presence in our lives and cast a long shadow. Not only are they our shelter, our home and our comfort, but buildings also represent a footprint of our existence. As German born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe aptly stated, “Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.” Although architecture may be regarded primarily for its functionality, it becomes a reflection of those who inhabit the space and becomes more than just a piece of infrastructure.
In the hands of four artists with four distinct visions, buildings take on new dimensions and depth. The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is pleased to present Under Construction an exhibition curated by Amanda Johnston and Alexandra Hofmaenner that explores architecturally influenced constructed spaces through the works of Canadian contemporary artists' – Thomas Corriveau, Martin Désilets, Guillaume Lachapelle and Sean Whalley.
Multidisciplinary artist, Thomas Corriveau's artworks explore the idea of home and our collective memories contained in these structures. Through a careful architectural organization, Corriveau deconstructs our illusion of space through a play on photography, painting and 3-D structures. In his Agglomerations series, Martin Désilets presents photographs of the urban territory of Beirut, Lebanon including abandoned homes and buildings that bare the blemishes of the civil war. He uses fragmented imagery and a combination of painting and digital photography to depict the de-construction and re-construction of a city that shapes the cultural reality of today's Beirut. Alternatively, the miniature wood sculptures of Guillaume Lachapelle create a theatrical architectural setting where the real and the imaginary collide. His projecting and suspended building facades leave us simultaneously with a sense of familiarity and estrangement causing us to question our notions of reality and our place in it. On a larger scale, Saskatchewan artist Sean Whalley creates massive sculptures from recycled wood, seemingly attempting to bring the material back to its natural state; this questions the essence of shelter and makes us rethink our notions of habitat. Whalley's organic constructions that look like inhabitable spaces are used as a criticism for clear cutting and deforestation.
Through the work of these artists we travel between different spheres on the theme of constructed spaces; spaces that encompass our habitat and notions of self. Architecture is a building block that shapes and cultivates our environment, both physically and collectively. Its undeniable presence and importance proves to play an eminent role in defining our realities that are evolving constantly and remain Under Construction.
In the Project Room : Shifting Terrains
Lise-Hélène Larin is a multidisciplinary artist whose non-figurative 3D animated films question the notion of sculpture and painting. As the virtual camera infiltrated her work, it framed, froze and fixed her mise-en-scène into simulated photos which play on perception and through which she developed an unusual process of representation by “constructing” images using virtual polygons arranged in space. She thereby creates strange worlds the nature of which is "algorithmical", figurations that escape photographic representation as the referent from reality is now absent. Representation in this case is more of a cognitive research than a skill to mimic nature.
March 24th to May 6th 2007
Rythmes Urbains
An exhibition by VOX, centre de l'image contemporaine and the Arts Council of Montreal en tournée
Curator: Claudine Roger
Kinga Araya - Gwenaël Bélanger - Clara Gutsche - Thomas Kneubühler - David Miller - Alain Paiement - Gabor Szilasi - Bill Vazan
From March 24th to May 6th 2007, Le Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée and the Stewart Hall Art Gallery is proud to present RYTHMES URBAINS, an exhibition created and produced by VOX, centre for contemporary image, and curated by Claudine Roger. The exhibition explores the issues raised by street photography and brings together the works of eight photographers and videographers whose visual research questions our relationship with the city: Kinga Araya, Gwenaël Bélanger, Clara Gutsche, Thomas Kneubühler, David Miller, Alain Paiement, Gabor Szilasi, and Bill Vazan.
For over thirty years, many Quebec artists have been closely observing the daily spectacle unfolding in cities. They travel throughout the world seeking urban experiences and meaningful situations, which they capture. Their representations of the city landscape, randomly constructed from travels and encounters, shed light on the relationship between the stability of a place and the mobility of space. Just like the artists who have criss-crossed various cities loaded with memories, this exhibition takes visitors on a journey punctuated by the rhythm of their works.
Keenly interested in the different ways of expressing contemporary images, VOX is a centre devoted to presentation, research, and experimentation that invites artists and curators to take part in an on-going think-tank and creative laboratory focussing on various image-based practices. The results of this research and creation can be destined for an exhibition, a public presentation, publication, or Internet broadcast, often presented in collaboration with presenters, universities, and research centres in Canada and on the international scene.
This 55th travelling exhibition presented by the Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée will continue to tour until spring 2008 in various municipal venues on the island of Montreal. For more than 20 years, the Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée has enabled arts organizations working in the performing arts, visual arts, literature, cinema, design, new media and new artistic practices, to exhibit and promote their creations to the entire population.
In the Project Room :
Une Suite de Bach by Les Impatients
Just as the name Michelangelo or Picasso epitomizes the notion of creativity in the world of art, in Music, the name Johann Sebastian Bach resonates a sense of timelessness and innovation. Thus when artist Pierre Bellemare introduced Bach to participants attending regular workshops at Les Impatients, he created a growing fascination for the musician and his music that led to a series of portraits depicting the Bach family. The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is pleased to present, Une Suite de Bach, a feast of unconventional artistic interpretations by Les Impatients. The exhibition is truly a symphony of multiple visions celebrating the power of creativity and imagination.
Established in 1992, la Fondation pour l'art thérapeutique et l'art brut du Québec (now known as Les Impatients) is devoted to the enhancement of the quality of life of people experiencing, or having experienced, psychiatric problems by giving them the opportunity to express themselves through visual arts and music. This is the Gallery's second collaboration with Les Impatients (the first, images en liberté: Pierre Henry and friends in 2003). Filled with intuitive expression, their work continues to enrich and nourish our visual experience.
From May 12th to June 24th 2007
ABSTRACTION IN QUEBEC:
Then and Now
Works from the Forget Donation from Musée d'art de Joliette and Abstract art of today
Barry ALLIKAS, Martin BOURDEAU, Paul BUREAU, Jérôme FORTIN and Stéphane LA RUE
Far from creating in a vacuum, todays artists are well versed in the traditions and history of Western art and other aesthetic practices. In Quebec, it is, perhaps, even more so; for the richness of Quebec art is well documented. However, it is the legacy of abstraction in Quebec that has had the greatest impact on the art of this province since the 1950s. In 1948, when Borduas and the signatories of the Refus Global declared, “make way for magic,” they ushered in a revolutionary spirit that still reverberates today. Working within the shadows of Les Automatists and Les Plasticiens (especially the 2nd generation leaders, Molinari and Tousignant) is a new wave of Montreal artists intent on redefining abstraction in contemporary terms.
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is proud to present, Abstraction in Quebec: Then and Now, an exhibition that looks at the concurrent practice of abstract painting in the work of five artists, Barry Allikas, Martin Bourdeau, Paul Bureau, Jérôme Fortin and Stéphane La Rue. Their works are juxtaposed with a selection of paintings from the Donation Forget, Musée d'art de Joliette,* which reflects the traditional poles of early Quebec Abstraction. Here, the canvases of Barbeau, Ferron, Leduc, de Repentigny, Molinari, Tousignant, and Hurtubise, rather than continuing the ideological debate between the gestural and the geometric, stand as a witness to this dynamic era, as fresh and powerful today as when first created.
The work of the five contemporary abstractionists all germinate from the formal qualities that define abstraction. Yet, they re-emerge beyond that framework extending into new territories, bringing new vistas to non-objective art. With his seemingly simple horizontal strips of colour, Barry Allikas alludes to Molinari's stripes but with a decisive hint of content. With the suggestions of something, perhaps indefinable, and a sense of vigour, Allikas determines the viability of his system, and then paints. Both Stéphane La Rue and Martin Bourdeau explore the persistence of colour as subject and the possibilities afforded by the use of the monochrome. Bourdeau stakes out his territory in nature, art history or the relationship of actual pigment tones to their given names. Conceptually based, the works are executed in flat, pure colour. La Rue's white canvases are like tiles of colour whose uniformity of tone gives way to subtle gestural brush strokes as he explores the shape of colour. The definition between the linen ground and applied paint blurs, and in some cases, takes on the three-dimensionality of form. The thick, sensuous impasto of Paul Bureau's abstracts are like explosions of large masses of colour within confined spaces. An accumulation of form, colour and gesture, they meld the expressive qualities of Les Automatists with the more defined geometric shapes of Les Plasticiens without the hard-edged aesthetic. Jérôme Fortin plays with the defining concepts of abstraction - the notion of the grid, the circle, and the line - within the materials of our consumer culture and mass media society. Plastic bottles become a brilliantly coloured tondo, printed books are transformed into 3-D patterns, and origami triangles of recycled paper form linear minimalist works.
Abstraction in Quebec: Then and Now is a celebration of the infinite diversity of formal abstraction, what Marcel Duchamp referred to as “retinal art.” It is as vital now as then – a precursor of the Quiet Revolution – long live the magic of its language.
* The Stewart Hall Art Gallery would like to thank the Musée d'art de Joliette for their generous loan of works from the Donation Forget.
VERNISSAGE: Sunday, May 13th at 2 p.m.
September 1st to October 14th 2007
PaperWorks!
Louis Boudreault - Annie Lou Chester - Marc Garneau - Michelle Guay - John Heward - Michael Joliffe - Paul Lussier - Alex McKay - Guido Molinari - Alexandra Pilote - Dominique Valade
in collaboration with
La Papeterie Saint-Armand
Paper Makers - Papetiers
Curator: Denise Lapointe
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is proud to present PaperWorks!, an exhibition of works on handmade paper in collaboration with La Papeterie Saint-Armand. David Carruthers has been making paper for artists at his Saint-Armand paper mill for nearly 30 years. Convinced that there was a market for a traditional product, he has been successful in running the mill as an independent manufacturer. Saint-Armand is not a museum or a foundation or an artists' centre, but it is an important creative resource and supportive venue for artists.
This exhibition, curated by Denise Lapointe, highlights works by some of the artists who have used Saint-Armand paper not only as a surface for painting or printmaking but as an integral part of their creative expression. From Guido Molinari`s early bold calligraphic gestures to John Heward`s signs brushed onto the web of paper as it runs through the machine, the possibilities are endless. Marc Garneau needed a sturdy surface to burn with a flame thrower, while Annie Lou Chester used delicate wet laminated sheets to create the floating background colours of her linocuts. Paul Lussier buried prints between two sheets of wet paper to hide and recover chosen parts of his prints in a series of “sarcophagi.” Michael Joliffe has cast pulp with fragments from nature, then has assembled them into baroque sculptures of found objects. Alex McKay required a stretchable translucent paper to build a canoe, and Alexandra Pilote, who works at the mill, brought home a very personal selection of sheets to collage. Michelle Guay has been weaving and embroidering a creative veil of paper; while in a subtle accumulation of sheets on panels, Louis Boudreault has created evocative stories of the lives and times of individuals. Dominique Valade has been invited by the Saint-Armand Mill as a guest artist for six months, and has been exploring the seduction of paper as a new material in her sculptures, combining it with metal and plants.
During the exhibition at Stewart Hall Art Gallery, the Saint-Armand Paper Mill will be open to the public on Saturdays in September (Sept. 8, 15, 22, 29). Please consult the web site: www.st-armand.com. You are also invited to visit McGill University's Redpath Museum and see the giant origami pteranodon made from a 4 metre square sheet of Saint-Armand handmade paper folded by American artist Robert Lang.
In the Project Room
Discover the fascinating world of handmade paper – the process, the texture, the seductive sheets, and a selection of artists' books.
VERNISSAGE: Wednesday, September 5th from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
December 1st to January 27th 2008
Vegetable Rites
Birds in the Moon
Gary Nickard - Reinhard Reitzenstein - Patty Wallace
More than 300 years before the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik satellite and American astronaut Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, Oliver Cromwell's England had its own ambitious space program. Dr. John Wilkins, a 17th-century scientist, theologian and brother-in-law of Cromwell, proposed the first serious attempt at a manned flight to the Moon – his spaceship powered by harnessed geese and gunpowder.
From our perspective the effort may seem ludicrous, but Wilkins was quite serious. He was also part of a period of scientific inventions and the astronomical revelations of Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler. Inspired by the discovery of other continents and the great sea voyages of explorers such as Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh, Wilkins' "Celestial Chariot" was conceived as an equally ambitious plan to explore outer space. Unfortunately, Wilkins never had the chance to test his theories, and the Jacobean Space Program was eventually grounded.
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition Vegetable Rites – Birds in the Moon, in which artists Gary Nickard, Reinhard Reitzenstein and Patty Wallace, through the dark art of Necromancy, bring the Jacobean Space Program back to life and pick up where both Wilkins and Cromwell left off...
The "vegetables" in question are, of course, Reitzenstein's signature trees (actually in this case, huts made of organic vegetal materials) – huts that, in addition to being a contemplative environment, perhaps, provide shelter for the “moon birds.” The "rites" are not only the ritual aspects of art making, but also the "necromancy" by which the artists raise the spectre of Oliver Cromwell's era and his brother-in-law's (the "scientist" Wilkins) musings about the moon and its inhabitants. Stir in Nickard's alchemy-based investigations and experimental physics with the paintings of earthly nests and celestial craters of Wallace (nests of another kind?) and the visual and conceptual transformations are set in motion. It is an exhibition that is guaranteed to titillate, provoke and question our perception of the historical past, fictional reality, and a boundless future.
Ontario sculptor Reinhard Reitzenstein and American conceptual artist Gary Nickard have collaborated on several exhibitions that explore the realm of science and art. Both teach at SUNY Buffalo and are joined in this exhibition with painter and new media artist Patty Wallace from Williamsville, NY.
In the Project Room :
Mary Cornell - Watercolours
A former director of the Stewart Hall Art Gallery and long-time member of the Lakeshore Association of Artists, Mary Cornell's watercolours of flowers grace the walls of many West Island homes. This exhibition of selected works from the artist's collection pays homage to her enduring commitment and support of our cultural and artistic milieu. Thank you Mary and Richard Cornell for this honour and for the loan of the works for this exhibition.
VERNISSAGE with the artists: Sunday, December 2nd at 2 p.m.
From February 2nd to March 16th 2008
Yonder : Entre ici et là
Edmund Alleyn
Presented by the Centre d'exposition CIRCA
and the Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée
Curator: Jo-Ann Kane
From February 2nd to March 16th 2008, The Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée and the Stewart Hall Art Gallery are proud to present Yonder: entre ici et là – Edmund Alleyn, an exhibition produced by le Centre d'exposition Circa. This exhibition, curated by Jo-Anne Kane, brings together works from Alleyn's Indigo series (1983-1990), which illustrates the role of photography in the painter's work.
“Yonder” shows the artist in a constant duality between two realities, or even, two solitudes. This term marks and identifies a new place, a middle ground that is neither here nor there; in other words, an imaginary world. These mental places map our inner lives. In his Indigo series, Edmund Alleyn traces his emotional cartography, his personal geography. This exhibition displays works that do not refer to any specific images or a precise time : they remain over “yonder”.
Edmund Alleyn (1931-2005) was a versatile artist, who contributed in particular to breaking down barriers between various mediums and disciplines. Although a non-figurative painter for the first 10 years of his professional life, in 1965 Alleyn began researching new means of communication such as cybernetics, experimental cinema, sound, photography, and psychological environments.
Yonder : entre ici et là – Edmund Alleyn is the Conseil des arts de Montréal's 57nd travelling exhibition. For more than 25 years, the Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée has allowed arts organizations working in the performing arts, the visual arts, literature, cinema, design, new media and new artistic practices to exhibit and promote their creations among the population as a whole.
&
Ulysse Comtois – Selected Works
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is proud to also present the exhibition Ulysse Comtois : Selected Works. Comtois (1931-1999) and Edmund Alleyn were good friends and part of Quebec's exciting art milieu of the 1950-60s with Borduas, Riopelle and Molinari. An Automatist turned Plasticien, Comtois explored the concepts of space and form and their interrelationships. His paintings are structured images in which the pictorial space is partitioned off with horizontal/vertical grid-lines. His sculptures, first in wood and later in steel, are powerful kinetic forms. Comtois' art is one of synthesis, between colour and form, science and poetry, time and motion. The Gallery would like to thank Louise Masson for her enthusiastic support of the exhibition, and for the loan of the works from her collection.
VERNISSAGE: Sunday, February 3rd at 2 pm
From March 22nd to May 4th 2008
Robert Roussil
Works on paper
For over 50 years, Quebec sculptor, Robert Roussil, has lived in Tourrettes-sur-Loup, a medieval town set in the mountains above Nice on the French Rivera. Yet he remains part of the Quebec art milieu, an iconic figure like Borduas and Riopelle. Roussil, along with Armand Vaillancourt, dominated Quebec sculpture in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, isolated from all the trappings of the art world, Roussil has followed his own vision, making sculpture and exquisite works on paper. While his sculptures dot the Montreal landscape and fill the museums, his works on paper have rarely been exhibited in Canada.
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is proud to present Robert Roussil: Works on Paper, an exhibition of paintings and collages done since 2000. Although executed in gouache or acrylic medium with gold leaf, there is a tendency to refer to these works as drawings due to the fluid nature of the contour line. Here, shapes are encircled and forms inscribed in an expressive freedom of movement and design. In some, the imagery is contained; in others, the lines explode, extending outwards onto a second surface, and a third, until the panels that began as one entity, have multiplied and expanded to a degree of infinity.
The associations to Roussil's sculpture are clearly visible. For instance, the flame-like forms found in the large wooden sculpture Tout feu tout flamme (1987), the only sculpture in the exhibition, are echoed in the rhythmic, flowing lines in his two dimensional works. The circles and spirals in black and gold are reminiscent of other wood sculptures from the 1970s and 80s. Roussil has always sought a sense of lyricism in his work, and with it, a notion of harmony between the physicality of the sculpture and its spirit. These works on paper express that essence with an unbridled delight in the sensuous play of colour, line and form. The vital power and confidence found in Robert Roussil's sculpture has been transposed onto the flat surface. The results are as paramount, potent and dynamic as his sculpture. They are the mark of the man, his art and his spirit.
In the Project Room :
ROUSSIL OU LE CURIEUX DESTIN D'UN ANARCHISTE IMPÉNITENT
During the exhibition, this acclaimed film on Robert Roussil by well-known director, Werner Volkmer, will be on view in the Project Room. The film traces the life and times of the sculptor and, as noted in the promotional material, “seeks the truth within the soul of the man and his tumultuous artistic path.” It is a fascinating documentary of an extraordinary man. The Stewart Hall Art Gallery would like to thank Werner Volkmer, founder of Aquilon Film, for giving us permission to screen this film for the pleasure of our visitors to the exhibition.
From May 10th to June 22nd 2008
Canadian Wood Block / Relief Prints
Bonnie BAXTER - Ingeborg HISCOX - René DEROUIN
Brian KELLEY - Erik EDSON - Claire LEMAY -
Elizabeth FORREST - Graham SCHOLES
As part of the celebration of Quebec's Mois de l'art imprimé, the Stewart Hall Art Gallery is proud to present Canadian Wood Block / Relief Prints, a selection of works from eight artists from across Canada who use the relief print medium as their focus. The relief printing process is one in which part of the surface of a flat block is cut away to produce the raised image. The block is then inked and the raised areas are printed. Each colour requires a new block. Traditionally relief printing used wood as the matrix. However other materials, such as linoleum, are also used.
Bonnie Baxter, founder of the Atelier du Scarabée in Val-David in 1983, has returned to printmaking after exploring other media for the past ten years. In her recent Chi-Chi doggie series, layers of imagery and colour engulf the archetype form, its shamanistic powers revealed beneath the surface. Best known for his abstract wood block prints that evoke the northern landscape, René Derouin is the master of the contemporary wood block/relief print in Quebec. His expressive works reflect his multidimensional vision that centers on territory, migration and identity. Erik Edson, from New Brunswick, creates large wood block prints by working on multiple sheets of paper that often become a configuration of the image. His animal forms and built structures speak of the domestication of nature. Brian Kelley and Elizabeth Forrest are two printmakers from Toronto. Elizabeth Forrest spent eleven years in Japan, the birthplace of the wood block tradition. While her "straw series" denotes her desire to interpret social phenomena and the rituals of human interaction, especially that of other cultures, Brian Kelley captures the romantic notions of the bountiful land. His multiple colour images of forests and waterfalls speak of the legacy of Canadian landscape painting. The numerous layers and repetitive imagery in the work of Ingeborg Hiscox are illustrative of the many facets of the wood block print process. The complexities in her work denote a remarkable technical expertise; one that is evident in all the artists in the exhibition. Like Hiscox, Claire Lemay is active in the Montreal print milieu and has developed a very personal expression with the wood block print. Using literary or historical references as part of her iconography, Lemay blends the past with the present and, in her hangings, introduces a sculptural aspect to this centuries-old print tradition. In his series honouring the lighthouses of Canada's coastal waterways, B.C. printmaker, Graham Scholes, often uses up to fifteen or so different colours in his wood block prints – each requiring a separate block.
Each of these Canadian artists offers a contemporary look at an age-old print process. The result is an exciting and individualized view of wood block printing today.
Come and meet the artists at the Vernissage:
Sunday, May 11th at 2 p.m.
In the Project Room :
Walter J. Phillips (1884-1963):
Historic Wood Block Prints
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is delighted to present a selection of woodcuts and wood engravings by Walter J. Phillips, the father of wood block printing in Canada, from the collection of Philip Adamson, grandson of the artist. Our thanks to the Estate of the artist, Philip Adamson, and Roger Boulet for making this exhibition possible.
See: www.duffin.net/phillips/
From July 6th to August 24th 2008
States of Materiality
Karilee Fuglem – Michel Goulet – Douglas Scholes
For centuries, the defining characteristic of sculpture has been its material and the notion of permanence. Today, however, the traditional bronze, marble and wood have been displaced by a wide variety of materials. It is the state of those materials, the materiality of the substance that has become an interesting point of departure for contemporary sculptors.
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is pleased to present States of Materiality, an exhibition of works by three Montreal artists, Karilee Fuglem, Michel Goulet and Douglas Scholes. Each explores “states of materiality” creating works that are sometimes soft, sometimes hard, often ephemeral and impermanent, yet always provocative.
Recipient of the Governor General's Award for the Visual and Media Arts in 2008, Michel Goulet brings to his sculpture/installations a refined sense of craftsmanship and an affinity for fabricated industrial materials or objects. Goulet constructs and deconstructs incongruent, disparate items often producing puzzling relationships within each renewed spatial arrangement. His assemblages create a delicate balance between reality, illusion and instability. In sharp contrast to the stability and strength of Goulet's sculpture, Karilee Fuglem makes the invisible, visible. Wisps of soft, fine strands of thread become evocative fragile webs or structures that capture light and movement; translucent forms expand and contract like living organisms. Presence and permanence have given way to the immaterial and ephemeral. The built constructions of Douglas Scholes reference the most ancient of materials, brick. Yet on closer examination, these bricks are made of beeswax whose durability and substance inevitably alters with the passage of time. His sculpture/structures undergo a perpetual transformation – a commentary on the nature of the material and the cyclical aspect of both human life and the built environment.
For all three artists, material is paramount to their individual vision of expression. Its physical properties, the materiality, provide the vehicle for exploration and discovery, pushing the boundaries between object and concept, concrete and abstract, material and immaterial. Through the manipulation of materials, Karilee Fuglem, Michel Goulet and Douglas Scholes take the sculptural object beyond one that demands a timeless contemplation to a reflection on decay and renewal, and perhaps propose a catalyst for (ex) change.
PICNIC-VERNISSAGE: Sunday, July 6th at noon
From August 31st to October 19th 2008
Itinerary in Contemporary Art :
Bold New Directions
Guest curator : Marjolaine Labelle
An exhibition presented by the Musée d'Art de Joliette
Since the 1960s, contemporary art has continually been reinventing itself – heading in bold new directions. Along the way, it has provoked questions and reflection, offered multifaceted viewpoints and divergent concepts, and extended the boundaries of traditional painting and sculpture into other areas of knowledge. However, without the familiar historical or formal reference points, contemporary art is often difficult to understand. Like the Impressionists, who were considered “shocking” in their time, contemporary artists appear as revolutionist questioning the status quo and the social, political, and cultural environment.
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is pleased to present Itinerary in Contemporary Art: Bold New Directions, an exhibition organized by the Musée d'art de Joliette. Using works from the Musée's dynamic permanent collection of contemporary art, guest curator, Marjolaine Labelle negotiates a pathway through the sometimes puzzling and often provocative world of contemporary art. Grouped along open-ended themes such as “DARE to see otherwise…; DARE to confront…; DARE to defy…; DARE to denounce…; DARE to cheat…”; the works challenge and confront the viewer, reinventing our perception of reality.
Some artists, like Pierre Ayot, Michael Snow and Roberto Pellegrinuzzi, transform the way we see things, using new viewpoints or new technology such as holography. Raymonde April's photographs are confrontational, floating between different elements as ideas much like the inventiveness found in the works of Jacques De Tonnancour. Defiance for contemporary artists like Albert Dumouchel or Jean-Pierre Morin becomes an ideological, physical or artistic dare. Others question the atrocities of the world denouncing, for instance, South African apartheid in the work of Luc Béland, or for Dominique Blain, the issues of censorship, subjugation and war. Each of these artists “dare” to express alternative visions, explore new territories, and in turn, push the limits of how we see and interpret the world around us. If it upsets current norms and conventions, it is because, more than at any time in our history, reality has become an unknown. As we face the uncertainties of the future, art can be a means by which we traverse the abyss and it is the contemporary artist who is leading the adventure – in bold new directions!
As part of this exhibition, the Musée d'art de Joliette, in collaboration with the portal Connexion-Lanaudière and with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage's Canadian Culture Online program, has established a Web site in which to further experience these works and the collection. In addition to providing access to those who can not attend the exhibition, it underlies the important role museums play in visual arts awareness, education and learning. We invite visitors to explore this interactive site both at home and in the Gallery http://www.itinerart.ca/en/index.jsp.
VERNISSAGE: Wednesday, September 3rd at 7 pm
From November 1st to November 30th 2008
Art Rental
The New Collection 2009
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is pleased to present Art Rental - The New Collection 2009 from November 1st to November 30th 2008, the annual exhibition of works from the Gallery's Art Rental and Sales Service.
Since 1967, the Art Rental and Sales Service of the Stewart Hall Art Gallery has taken an active role in the promotion of the arts in the community by offering more than a hundred figurative and abstract works of art to the public. Every fall, the Art Rental and Sales Service renews its collection by inviting the artists of the greater Montreal area to submit their works to a professional jury. After being presented in a yearly exhibition at the Gallery, the selected works – including drawings, paintings, photography, prints and mixed media - are available for sale or for rent for one year at the Art Rental and Sales Service, on the second floor of Stewart Hall.
It is as easy to rent a work of art from the Gallery as it is to borrow a book from the library. Works from the Art Rental Collection are framed and ready to hang and may be purchased, or borrowed for a limited time, offering an affordable way to bring art into the home or work environment.
Come and visit the exhibition and see how easy it is to become a discerning collector. Rent an art work during the exhibition and you may be the lucky winner of an original work of art.
The public is cordially invited to come and meet the exhibiting artists
at the Vernissage.
VERNISSAGE: Sunday, November 2nd at 2 pm
From December 6th 2008 to January 25th 2009
Spotlight on the Eastern Townships
John Ballantyne
Pierre Blanchette
Liz Davidson
Michèle Drouin
David James
Holly King
Darren Millington
Todd Munro
Morton Rosengarten
David Sorensen
Monique Voyer
curator: Joyce Millar
Location and site are continuing issues in contemporary artistic production. Tied to notions of cultural identity, they are also sources of inspiration and part of the universal need to belong to a place. The Eastern Townships is a mecca for artists; with Sutton having the largest concentration of artists in its workforce in Quebec, and the fifth in Canada. The idyllic countryside and proximity to major art centres provide with the ideal site for artistic production. Fascinated by these statistics, curator, Joyce Millar, selected eleven Township artists - John Ballantyne (painting), Pierre Blanchette (painting), Liz Davidson (mixed media), Michèle Drouin (painting), David James (sculpture), Holly King (photography), Darren Millington (mixed media), Todd Munro (printmaking), Morton Rosengarten (sculpture), David Sorensen (painting) and Monique Voyer (painting) - whose works provide an unprecedented witness to the richness and diversity of the region.
The Stewart Hall Art Gallery is pleased to present Spotlight on the Eastern Townships, an exhibition produced in conjunction with Galerie Arts Sutton. This is the first time that these national and internationally known artists, who all share the same geographical area, have exhibited together. As in most areas of this vast country, the sense of community does not necessarily transpose itself into a coherent style or regional look. Yet, there is a sense that each of these artists have in some way been captivated and touched by their surroundings.
The accompanying catalogue was made possible thanks to the generous financial support of Aeroplan, RBC Dominion Securities, The Townshippers Research & Cultural Foundation, and The Friends of Stewart Hall. The Gallery would also like to thank Galerie Arts Sutton for their collaboration.
The public is cordially invited to come and meet the artistsat the Vernissage.
VERNISSAGE: Sunday, December 7th at 2 pm
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