(walk in the park) This time of year is great for walking in any of the city’s many parks and neighbourhoods – the leaves have turned orange, yellow and red and are falling fast as our usual winter wonderland months approach. Walk the wide, level path up Mount Royal (and take the steps to the top for a great view of the city), or dress warmly and head to Parc LaFontaine for an afternoon picnic. Parc Jean Drapeau, located on an island in the middle of the St-Lawrence River and home of the Biosphere, offers plenty of free and natural distraction too.

(artistic freedom) Buzz abounds about the MMFA’s Big Bang show, a multidisciplinary event-exhibition that can be enjoyed on many levels, whether you’re an art aficionado or just looking for a dry place to spend a rainy day – it runs until January and entry is free! Twenty artists have teamed up to show not only their talents, but the interplay of their work with works in the museum’s collection – from the video work of Denys Arcand and Adad Hannah to choreographer Marie Choinard’s photography and En Masse collective’s graffiti-like mural art – the show is an intriguing and entertaining journey. Access to the museum’s wide-ranging permanent collection remains free as always – current exhibitions include Dorothea Rockburne’s first Canadian retrospective In My Mind’s Eye, an installation called Resolute Bay by Quebec artists Louis Couturier and Jacky Georges Lafargue and paintings by Michael Merrill, inspired by the architecture of the Museum’s new pavillion.

(public entertainment space) Inside the Place des Arts complex is a newly-appointed public performance space: L’Espace Georges-Emile-Lapalme. And by public performance, I mean free performances – awesome! As part of this month’s Arab World Festival, the series Charabia (Babble) features film screenings, music, dance and visual art every evening until November 13. Meanwhile, as part of the Quebec Triennial, artist Lynn Marsh’s video installation, The Philharmonie Project (Bruckner: Symphony No. 5, movements 1 & 4), shows until the beginning of January. On November 17, enjoy a little klezmer-Quebecois music from Gadji Gadjo, and on November 18, hang with the Yoel Diaz Cuban Jazz Trio. Dance features too: learn the polka on November 20, and on the evenings of November 23–24, see performances from Louis Bédard Danse, Wants and Needs, and Isabel Mohn.

(modern art movement) The Musée d’art Contemporain’s Quebec Triennial, continues with free entry every Wednesday evening alongside the free events series featuring Montreal artists, performers and musicians – Tim Hecker on November 9, Dominique Pétrin and Georges Rebboh on November 16, Sylvie Cotton on November 23, and Martin Tétreault on November 30. Galleries – public, commercial and artist-run – in the Belgo building at 372 Saint-Catherine West are always free and open to the public: check out Galerie Pangée, Skol, Galerie B-312, Art 45 and many more. Up near Jean Talon Market, visit Battat Contemporary, currently showing new provocative work by truly great Canadian artist Sophie Jodoin.

(zine scene) While you can spend a fair amount of pocket change at Expozine, the two-day fair is more than a marketplace – it’s a celebration of Montreal’s incredible independent creators of books, comics, zines, poster art, crafts and assorted miscellany. Now in it’s 10th year, the event brings together not only over 270 exhibitors from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the US and Europe, but acts as a community meeting place and a free-form idea-generation zone. Often, Expozine happens around the same time of our first snow fall, but this just makes the whole experience somehow cozier – plus there are snacks and warm beverages: November 26–27, noon to 6 p.m. at Église Saint-Enfant Jésus (5035 St-Dominique).

(a lot like christmas) I’m just not ready yet. Seasons tidings and all the trappings seem to come earlier every year. But can I really feel irked in the face of the Montreal Santa Claus Parade? It’s been going on since 1925, after all, and tradition is tradition, just as happy, excited kids is the kind of excitement I can fully buy into. On November 19, see Santa Claus among the 20-plus floats making their way along Saint-Catherine street in downtown Montreal, from Fort Street to Saint-Urbain. And on November 25, Plaza St-Hubert hosts it’s own, if lower-key, Christmas Parade, starting at 7 p.m. on Saint-Hubert at Bellechasse and traveling down the plaza’s shop-strewn street to the corner of Jean-Talon.

The post FREE THINGS TO DO IN MONTREAL: NOVEMBER appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

Damien Hirst, one of the planet’s most famous (and rich!) artists is now carried and represented in Canada by Montreal’s Galerie de Bellefeuille.

A YBA (Young British Artist) and reportedly Britain’s richest living artist (net worth valued at $344 million dollars!), Damien Hirst  is known for a series of artworks in which dead animals (including a shark, a sheep and a cow) are preserved in formaldehyde.  His was the huge (14’) shark reportedly sold to a hedge fund billionaire for $8 million, prompting an English fishmonger to suggest that anyone could purchase the stuffed shark in his shop window for a lot less.  Hirst has always stirred controversy.   He certainly has a sense of the art market.  Just before the economic downturn, he sold a complete show at Sotheby’s raising the wee sum of $198 million. Damien Hirst is also known for his made ‘spin’ paintings, and ‘spot’ paintings – rows of randomly coloured circles created by his assistants.

But I love the butterflies.  They adorn deck chairs at de Bellefeuille.  They hover over a beautiful red heart print – two already sold at 28 000 pounds!  And they stand in their individual, real-life colourful glory in separate prints, giving art lovers with a limited budget the chance to ‘own a Damien Hirst’ for less than $5,000.  But hurry!  Few remain.  Eerie -but-beautiful videos of Damien Hirst’s own skull (yes, exactly like an X-ray) sold for $65,000:  two were snapped up, such is the power of this marketer-artist.  He is also famed for his pharmacy themes.  Not only for his resto of the same name in London (which closed), but for his paintings of pill cabinets – no subtle reference there! A lovely one in this series can be seen at Galerie de Bellefeuille.  When you are in town for a visit, grab a taxi and rush, run, go…and see this amazing show.  If nothing else, go to the gallery site and view the works of the Damien Hirst.  There, the butterflies are free.

DETAILS

Galerie de Bellefeuille

1367 Greene Avenue

Monday – Friday 10 – 6 pm

Saturday 10 – 6 pm

Sunday (rare for galleries to be open. So use this opportunity !) 12 – 5:30 pm

514-933-4406 (ask for the knowledgeable Daniel)

WHILE IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Vago: a local treasure of Italian cuisine, complete with white tablecloths, but completely low key. Keep your eyes peeled. You will surely note some of Montreal’s high profile politicians, not to mention gorgeous socialites!

1336 Greene Avenue

514- 846-1414

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If in the past years, hunting down his art was always a gamble (even if you knew where to find it, you could never be certain the city hadn’t removed it already…) you can now be sure to find some of his work at Atelier Punkt, as he took over the space’s walls and floor and will, later on this week, extend this latest performance to the street, on the eastern and western sides of the building.

Roadsworth “ON & OFF” @ Atelier Punkt
5333, Casgrain, suite 205 A
Montréal (Québec) H2T 1X3
+1 514 458 7960
www.atelierpunkt.com
Open from Wednesday to Sunday, from 11am to 5pm
until November 21st 2010.

The post ROADSWORTH: GALLERY WORTHY appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

Your chance to see the best and the brightest. FREE! Montreal’s Musée d’Art Contemporain is showing top young Canadian artists thanks to the Sobey Art Award.

The Sobey Art Award was created in 2002 by the Sobey Art Foundation. The Award is presented annually to an artist under 40 who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within the 18 months prior to being nominated.

Organized in conjunction with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Musée d’Art Contemporain (known locally as ‘the MAC’) is presenting pieces by the four Quebec artists nominated for the Award, as well as the work of finalist Patrick Bernatchez ( picture above).  The prize is not only prestigious – it is pricey:  the winner receives $50,000.  Each finalist receives $5,000. The Quebec semifinalists being showcased are Pascal Grandmaison, BGL, Adad Hannah and Karen Tam.

BGL Collective is renowned mainly for its large-scale site-specific installations, which comment on work and play – a perfect commentary on the lifestyle of Montrealers, I might add!  Pascal Grandmaison’s films and still photographs are meditation on time and visual perception.  Adad Hannah transposes historical paintings and sculptures into videos and photographs with a contemporary angle.  His The Burghers of Calais, a riff on Rodin’s famed sculpture, will be shown.  Karen Tam’s works centre on the history of the Chinese diaspora, and the conflicted continuing relationships between East and West. This show is a great way to glimpse the creativity of young artists.

MEET THE FINALISTS IN PERSON    November 17, 2010.  5 p.m. Free.

Sobey Award finalists Brendan Lee Satish Tang (West Coast and Yukon), Brendan Fernandes (Ontario), Patrick Bernatchez (Quebec), Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby (Atlantic)

Daniel Barrow (Prairies and The North) will perform at 7:30 pm.

A fun thing to do? Attend this fun event and try and guess who will be announced as the winner – tomorrow. November 18!

Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal

185, Ste-Catherine West
/ corner Jeanne Mance

Montréal Qc

514.847.6232

www.macm.org

Credits : Patrick Bernatchez

BW (Black Watch), 2010

DON’T GO AWAY!  WHILE YOU ARE HERE.

You have to try Brasserie T. (sister bistrot to Montreal’s starred Toqué restaurant) Right next door. (I love…did I say love !…their fries. Oh, and the bavette is pretty good as well.)   The brainchild of Montreal top chef Normand Laprise (of Toqué fame) and Christine Lamarche, this new hotspot is in the Quartier des Spectacles and has received raves since opening a few months ago. Reservations are a must!

Brasserie T

425 Jeanne Mance  Open every day from 11h30

www.brasserie-t.com

514-282-080

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The first glimpse of Liliana Berezowksy’s work at Galerie CIRCA is inviting. A soft, pink suede chair-like piece sits on the floor to greet you. Indeed, for a nano-second, you think it is a contemporary chair, offering comfort. Therein lies the rub: Your first clue are the nails… A large roundish piece – can I call it ‘sculpture’ I ask myself ? – sits in the middle of the gallery.

A big sink-into seat, sensually inviting in suede. But it isn’t a chair at all. It is one of Liliana Berezowsky’s ‘’sculptures’’ – most of which communicate in contradictions. Her pieces make one look, and look again; and think. Influenced by the industrial landscape- by machinery – the artist creates perfectly-made pieces. They don’t look crafted: They look manufactured. They serve absolutely no use at all – except that they are beautiful. Each piece at the show suggests pleasure – but each harbours hidden danger. The pink suede that could swallow you up is framed in a beautifully-made semi-circle – studded with polished nails. Indeed, everything has a polished look and feel. The viewer is drawn in to admire – and then we are confused. We feel a slight frisson of fear. Spikey shapes counter the allure of softness. Berezowsky combines these two directions in her pieces that have no resemblance to anything in our world. A stunning, six-foot work undulating in one corner has a siren call. It looks like a sea creature. But like the call of the deep – there is a sense of apprehension. Simultaneously you hold both feelings – a visceral pleasure tinged with a touch of foreboding. Suddenly you realize the artist has succeeded: Liliana Berezowsky has totally involved you in her art.

Galerie CIRCA 372 Ste.Catherine Street 4th floor, # 444 514-393-8248 Tuesday – Saturdays 12 – 5:30 pm Until October 10 www.circa-art.com

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Billed as ‘The World’s Largest Photojournalism Exhibition’, World Press Photo 10 is at the Just for Laughs Museum until October 3. This amazing exhibit features the finest photojournalism from around the world. There is something for everyone, as the ten themes include sports, nature, portraits and daily life. Selected from over 100,000 submissions, the 65 chosen photographs will travel to over 100 cities.

There are also two other photography shows included in the exhibit at the Museum. In honour of the World Press Photo 10, presenting sponsor The Gazette chose 8 of its photographers, and showcased their work in Best of the Gazette. And Haïti Exposed is also up for viewing. These chosen images are by 5 photographers who bore witness to the tragedy in Haïti. The show is curated by Emmanuel Galland, who selected La Presse and The Gazette photographs that bear witness to the incredible, indelible destruction in that country. Take some time to stroll around the whole show. The exhibition is truly moving. One of the most striking photos for me was a series showing how starving villagers in Zimbabwe stripped a dead elephant down to bones in just 2 hours. A short time later, even the bones were gone. All of the photos document a moment in time – and remind us of it.

Just for Laughs Museum 2111 St. Laurent /Sherbrooke Street 514-845-2322 www.hahaha.com Daily from 11 – 10 pm September 3 – October 3, 2010 Students & Seniors $8 Family $30 Adults $15 Under 8, free Métro: Place des Arts Or #24 bus on Sherbrooke Street. St. Laurent stop.

The post LAST WEEK-END FOR WORLD PRESS PHOTO appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

What a great idea!  Take images of the moment from the planet’s most techno tracker – Google Street – and pair them with black and white photographs taken a few years ago.

Artist Jon Rafman, soon to be shown at New York’s prestigious New Museum, is part of a really interesting show at Art 45.  The exhibit, curated by Chloé Roubert, pairs work by photographer Gabor Szilasi with images downloaded from Google Street and enlarged by Rafman.  Gabor’s scenes are black and white.  Rafman’s are in glorious colours…the reality of the moment.  Gabor’s scenes have a reminiscent recall.  Rafman’s have an immediacy.  Rafman pulled images from North America. Chloé perused Szilasi’s portfolio to find photographs that paralled the Google images:  his street scene of sex shops is set beside a neon-bright Google Street/Rafman photo of a similar area.

Possibly Rafman’s most famous ‘photo’ is one of a nude woman with her back to us.  She is standing – seemingly in reflection – on a rocky shore.  The wavelets can be seen with their little tidal white caps.I saw the photo as a meditative moment – she is admiring nature before a secret (or not so secret:  is she alone?) skinny dip.  However, other people have apparently been bothered by this photo.  Their ‘reading’ of it is that the photo is an invasion of privacy.  But, we know not who she is, nor where.  Whether she has contemplations other than an appreciation of nature – we shall never know.  Google Street has taken this particular image down, by the way.  But you can see it – and buy it.  There are only three.

Catch Jon Rafman before the New Museum makes him a star.  And admire the documentarist photos of famed photog Gabor Szilasi. Rush to Montreal’s own ‘new museum’ – the Belgo Building features great emerging artists.  Smart buyers from all over the world are finding art they love, and buying them – before they are at shown at Art Basel Miami Beach – or the New Museum.

Gabor Szilasi images.  No edition.  $1,800.

Jon Rafman photos.  Edition of 3.  $225.

Until October 3, 2010.

Art 45

Belgo Building

372 Ste-Catherine Street

2^nd floor, # 220

514-817-0436

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Many Montrealers know Nicolas Baier’s in situ work:  the large  – 6,000 square feet!  – leafy glass mural installed at Concordia University, high above wandering students. Now there is a chance to see Baier’s latest art up close and personal.

Baier’s Vanitas 2008, an installation of digitally-scanned damaged mirrors, was an eye-catcher at the Musée d’art contemporain’s Triennale 2008. I loved it! Vanitas grabbed your attention. Ink-jet prints of darkened and scratched mirror surfaces were mounted together creating a large statement piece.  But the mirrors no longer reflected. You could not see yourself, but you could ‘see’ what you know. For example, in looking closely at one of the scratches, you might ‘see’ a flower. Imagination comes to the fore.

Baier’s new show is called Paréidolies. This title is a perfect description of his art. The word means when the human mind perceives the familiar in the abstract – such as ‘seeing’ a face in a cloud’s shape. Paréidolies, the travelling exhibition of Nicolas Baier’s work, has arrived in Montreal at Galerie René Blouin, the light-filled space in the Belgo Building.

Baier offers an intricate optical originality.  His images are carefully composed through the magic of modern technology:  Digital scanning.  Baier is inspired by all around him – but never humans.  In a zen-like way, he finds a cosmic beauty in the smallest moment.  His computer failed.  The screen turned red.  He found this so amazing that he framed the red image, and called it…Failed (2008).

Inspired by a lovely piece of green and orange rock from Tuscany, he scanned it.  The enlarged image (Paesina 01) is stunning. His crinkled up and stained bit of brown paper are re-framed, literally; Nuages is lovely, hanging on the main wall of the gallery. The mundane becomes magnificent. Art acts as a mirror to Nicolas Baier.  ‘’Objects, people – the smallest surfaces on which our eyes come to rest, are but a reflection of who we are.  We only see what we know.’’  This might explain why some gallery-goers swear they ‘see’ Monet’s famed water lilies in one of Baier’s works.  Another person sees a labyrinth.  Remember when you lay on your back as a child and watched the clouds turn into elephants, or a giraffe?  Rush to see Nicolas Baier’s beautiful images.  You will have that sense of wonder once again.

CREDIT

Pierre de rêve 1, 2010
Failed
Nuages
With permission from Galerie René Blouin, Montréal

Until October 9, 2010 at
Galerie René Blouin
372 Ste-Catherine Street West
5^th floor, # 501
514-393-9969

Tuesday – Friday 10 – 5:30 pm
Saturday 11- 5 pm
And by appointment.

STAY AT THE BELGO

After looking sip a cup of tea and try the carrot cake at the Belgo’s main floor café.  You will probably see artists (and collectors!) doing the same thing!

The post ARTIST NICOLAS BAIER PLAYS WITH YOUR MIND appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

I first found out about Montreal photographer Benoit Aquin 2 years ago, when he won the Prix Pictet 2008, the most prestigious photography award in the world.  For this Prize, sponsored by the Pictet Bank, Aquin submit pictures of the Chinese Dust Bowl – although the theme of the contest was water.

His beautiful images, taken in colour, were reduced to almost ‘’sepia-coloured daguerrotypes by the muffling, choking dust’’, I wrote in vie des arts. Benoit Aquin’s new photographs are again full of dust.  But it is a grey dust, from fallen, cracked and broken concrete:  the aftermath of the earthquake in Haïti.  Galerie Pangée is presenting this series – Haïti after the Earthquake, Aquin’s second solo show  which was exhibited this summer at the Musée de l’Elysée Lausanne (Switzerland). Aquin went to Haïti as a volunteer with CECI immediately after the earthquake and then returned four months later.  Most of his photos were taken at night – hence the blue-grey dusk shades that bathe each detail.  Aquin’s attention to each element in his frame suggests a documentary approach.  Even in the spontaneity of a joyous soccer game, or the horror of a crumpled home, his images have a formality.  Their crisp complexity of detail draws the viewer in.  You are there.

Aquin’s work is part of private and public collections in Canada, the United States, and Europe, and in the permanent collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (Ottawa), the Musée national des beaux-arts du Quebec (Quebec City) and the National Archives of Canada.  A percentage of proceeds from the sale of the photographs will be given to the CECI’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti.  The prints are more than worth a visit.  You have to buy one if you can.

Galerie Pangée

www.Galeriepangee.com

40 St. Paul Street (just west of St. Laurent)

Métro:  Place D’Armes

514-845-3368

Until October 11, 2010

The post AWARD-WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER SHOWS HAITI AFTER EARTHQUAKE appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

Love animals? Run down to the Old Port.  The photos are fabulous!

On Bonsecours Island (sounds like a pirate place, non?) at the Quais / piers of Old Montreal’s port area, there are 140 of the best animal photos in the world.  Fifty of these are being shown for the first time.  The exposition also has a video, which is really great to watch.  The show is a partnership between the famed Smithsonian Institute in Washington, the National Geographic Collection, and the renowned international photographer Vincent Munier.  It’s fun for everyone.  And the animal photos are amazing.  They should be.  Vincent has been awarded the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award – three times!

DETAILS

www.etat-sauvage.com

Bonsecours Island, Old Port Métro: Champs des Mars

Admission:

Adults $12

Children and 65+ $8

Children 0-5 free

Family of 4 – $35

Hours

Sunday – Wednesday 11 – 7 pm

Thursday – Saturday 11 – 9 pm

Until September 6, 2010

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