Olivia Boudreau
Pelages, 2007, video sequence
Bio
A performance and video artist, Olivia Boudreau’s work has been widely praised at many recent exhibitions such as those at Optica, the Leonard & Bina Allen Gallery, the SBC Gallery and the UQAM Gallery. Graduating from UQAM with a Masters in Visual Arts and Media, she received the Pierre Amyot prize. She currently lives and works in Montreal.
Work
Olivia Boudreau pursues a reflection about the image, the body, experience and perception through research into performance and video art. She mainly creates long, laborious video sequences that place the body at the forefront. In allowing the human form to submit to the passing of time, she seeks to establish an intimate dialogue between the spectator and the image. Her various installations thus give the spectator the opportunity to experience perception in time. Long duration, slowness and inaction are all things that characterise her work in the bulk of her production. Eroticism, intimacy, animality and the vulnerability of the body constitute the “narrative” framework of her shots.
Recent Exhibitions
2010
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010, Toronto
Dans l’intervalle, B-312, Montreal
BOX, Dazibao, Montréal
2009
Pelages, Galerie de l’UQAM, Montréal
2008
Observations I, SBC Gallery, Montréal
2007
Start, Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal
Milutin Gubash
the donkey, from HOTEL TITO, production still, 2010
Bio
Born in Novi Sad (Serbia), Milutin Gubash has been living in Montreal since 2005. His work has been shown on a number of occasions in Quebec, Canada, the United States, as well as in Europe.
Work
Milutin Gubash’s approach encompasses photography, video and performance. He employs honest and untouched visuals that are often comical by means of their mannerisms. Humor is omnipresent in his work, linking the intimacy of his own existence through the systematic mise en scène of his family and close friends. Starting from real stories, the artist creates his own fictitious scenarios that grapple with notions of identity, memory, intimacy and daily life. His art challenges social roles and representations of domestic life conflict against notions of what is “real”. In order to achieve these goals, the artist often conducts precise investigations such as with Re-enacting Tragedies While My Parents Look On, of which a snapshot was chosen for Plan Large in 2003.
Recent Exhibitions
2011-2012
Musée de Joliette, Joliette, Québec
Rodman Hall Arts Centre, St. Catherines, Ontario
Carleton University Art Galleries, Ottawa, Ontario
Southern Alberta Art Galleries, Lethbridge, Alberta
2010
Hotel Tito, VU, Manif d’art 5, curated by Sylvie Fortin, Quebec City
2008
Born Rich, Getting Poorer, OPTICA, Montreal
2007
Lots, curated by Louise Ismert, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal
Jon Knowles
untitled (look what you made me do, black and white #3), 36" x 36", Digital photo, 2010
Bio
Jon Knowles was born in Oshawa, Ontario and has been living in Montreal since 2005. He studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (Halifax), The Cooper Union (New York City), and Concordia University (Montreal). Knowles frequently collaborates with Michael Eddy and Robert Knowles under the name Knowles Eddy Knowles.
Work
Jon Knowles' projects are characterized by an interdisciplinary approach. In his work, there is often a synthesis of formats - photo, text, video, audio, found object, painting, performance, sculpture - which ultimately results in installation. Knowles adopts and reconfigures strategies with reference to Conceptual Art and Appropriation Art, which suggests that the meaning of a work comes out of the context, multiple connections and by the potential interpretations arising from the work itself, its references, or the materials used. With information gleaned from pop culture, fine art and other fields he weaves together bundles of narrative where perception, fact, and remembered things arrive at a material form.
Recent Exhibitions
2010
Blooming Flowers on the Coffee Table, Artexte, Montreal (collaborative curatorial project with Vincent Bonin)
2009
Making It Work, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal
2008
Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme, Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal
Die Wahrnehmung von Ideen führt zu neuen Ideen (#21), Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
Exalted Beings: Animal Relationships, Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia
2007
I Will Not Throw Rocks, Form Content, London, UK
Guillaume Labrie
Apparence, 2007
Bio
Currently living and working in Montréal, Guillaume Labrie graduated with a Masters in Visual Arts & Media from UQAM in 2007.
Work
Guillaume Labrie always starts the creation of his work by developing a strategy of presentation where the notions of architecture, of space and of the object must be physically integrated with one another. Thus the visual mechanics that are installed between the space of the exhibition and the objects found within is of utmost importance. These mechanics directly influence the form of his works, the choice of elements that he modifies to create them, their scale and quantity. In this process, he designs a restrictive context of presentation or creation and is then obliged to modify the structure of objects like the places for which the situations call for. The aesthetic of his work presents itself like a formal situation related to the constraints provoked by the fictitious context of the room; their form is more relative in their efficacy than in the system which he puts in place to demonstrate how they are displayed. In this respect, it is the symbolic value of the three-dimensional staging and the way in which the elements of the exhibition relate to one another which becomes the principal discursive point. As an artist, he aims to prolong the notion of sculpture in the object and architecture, all the time revising the normal equilibrium of form/function/position of certain usual visual elements.
Recent Exhibitions
2009
Les entre-deux, Le Lieux, Québec City
La sculpture au pied du mur, B312, Montréal
2008
Petites variations sur Iron Maiden, Espace Virtuel, Chicoutimi
Le repli des oeuvres, Langage Plus, Alma 2008 Les envahisseurs de l’espace II, Action Art Actuel, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
2007
Les envahisseurs de l’espace II, Galerie de l’UQAM, Montréal
Les envahisseurs de l’espace, Axenéo7, Hull, Québec
François Lemieux
2quotes, 2010
Crumpled recto-verso print on Dupont™ TYVEK™ cotton paper, 150cm x 80cm, color. Showed here in the Villa del Grumello parking lot, Como, Italy.
Work
Since 2006, François Lemieux has developed a practice relating to art, design and architecture. His work explores and comments on the economy, the relationship between the material object, the conditions of its production and the context of its display and reception. He is also the founder of WE LEFT THE WARM STABLE AND ENTERED THE LATEX VOID (WLTWSAETLV) (2008-2010). François Lemieux obtained a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Concordia University and then completed an MA in Visual Arts at UQAM. He lives and works in Montreal.
Recent Exhibitions
2010
1001 XANADUS – Ten Views From an Official’s Closed Balcony, in collaboration with Malcolm Sutton, SKOL, Montréal
Nous qui sommes jeunes, jamais nous ne verrons autant ni ne vivrons si vieux, Le Lobe, Chicoutimi
Something That May Or May Not Matter. Corso Aperto FAR, Villa del Grumello (03.07.10) Côme, Italy. Curators : Anna Daneri et Cesare Pietroiusti.
2009
Something That May Or May Not Matter, Walden Affair, The Hague, Netherlands
Mettre en œuvre – Making it Work. Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen, Curator: Susannah Wesley, Montréal
2008
The Gentlemen's Refrain. Kunstvlaai/Art Pie A.P.I., Curator: enter1646.com, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007
Parallel Universes Meet at Infinity. Springhill Institute (31.03.07), Curator: Ruben Henry & Karin Kilhberg. Birmingham, England
Thérèse Mastroiacovo
Viewing from a single vantage point (Figure 108), 2007-2008 23”x29” paper size Graphite on paper
Work
Thérèse Mastroiacovo’s work is about art itself as an idea, artistic process itself as methodology. It is about the precarious relationship art has to its own definition, open, half open, or slightly open for reclassification at any given time. The varying degrees of openness create space in-between, a space that gives way to meanderings, processes, and procedures. Her work is situated here, in a space of potential created in the middle of existing structures. It is this – this large, large thing stated so, so plainly - that makes her work both familiar and unknowable. She has produced works in a wide range of media including drawing, sculpture, video, performance and photography. Her works are often formally independent of one another, and appear determined from an internal logic that lead to idiosyncratic ends.
Recent Exhibitions
2011
Following Following Piece, Blackwood Gallery. University of Toronto, Mississauga (solo)
Situation, Centre D’Art et de Diffusion Clark. Montréal (solo)
2010
now with duration, contents, duration in common, art now, White Box Gallery. Portland, USA (solo)
au travail/at work, Museum of Rimouski, Rimouski. Curated by Marie-Ève Charron
Access Restricted, (in collaboration with Fiona Macdonald) Light Projects, Melbourne (solo)
2008
Conceptual Filiations, Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Montréal. Curated by Michèle Thériault
Redrawing, Project Room/Spare Room, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
2007
ART NOW, Mercer Union, Toronto (solo)
Josée Pedneault
Ile de Lantau, Hong Kong, April 24, 2007
Bio
Josée Pedneault lives and works in Montréal where in 2005 she completed a Masters in photography at Concordia University. Pedneault has also participated in residency programmes in Varsovie, Paris, Hong Kong, Scandinavia and Mexico.
Work
Josée Pedneault’s artistic work rests on the collection of images, the everyday and the sensitive links that are created between these images. Her photographic universe articulates around her diaristic, contemplative and poetic imagination, where she meets a variety of subjects. The theme of travel, wandering or the nomadic life is a constant invoked in a metaphoric manner by the concepts that govern her work. In her projects, Josée Pedneault aims to show, for example, that images make it possible to maintain a tangible memory (From Warsaw with Love, Les Correspondances), that love transcends time (Pour que tu ne m’oublies pas) or that the only value of anything is sentimental (Con todi mi afecto).
Recent Exhibitions
2010
Pour que tu ne m’oublies pas, Galerie Lilian Rodriguez, Montréal
Exposition Universelle de Shanghai, pavillon du Canada, Shanghai, Chine
2009
Festival de photographie de Phnom Penh, Cambodge
2007
Murmures, Installation in situ dans l’église Saint-Thomas Aquinas, Mois de la photo à Montréal, Commissaire Marie Fraser. Prix du Public Le Devoir/ Contact Image
2007
Secret Splendor, Gallery 44, Toronto, Ontario
Sayeh Sarfaraz
Magic Never Ends, 2009
Bio
Sayeh Sarfaraz was born in Shiraz, the cultural capital of Iran, located in the south west of the country. She graduated from l’École supérieure Des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg France and she is now pursuing different artistic projects in Montreal where she moved in a year ago.
Work
Sayeh Sarfaraz’s creative world draws its inspiration from the political events relating to her home country’s government. The constant anxiety of conflict, censorship, and the repression of the people of Iran is relayed in the naive language of a plastic toy collection and drawings. Relating directly to her wandering and exile, the figurines, haphazardly staged along childlike patterns, experience dramatic situations such as violent struggles, bombardments, jailings. This distortion between play and politics highlights the injustice of the manipulation of the weak, the gulf between great powers, and a people’s struggle for freedom. By a power transfer, the artist becomes the mistress of her own world as an outlet where her thoughts can freely unfold.
Recent Exhibitions
2010
Magic Never Ends "Iran of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad", Galerie ARTSPACE, Peterborough, Ontario. Commissaire: Iga Janik.
2009
Magic Never Ends, Galerie la Centrale, Montreal, Qc
2008
Anonymous Drawing N9, Berlin, Allemagne
Gedanken zur Revolution, Leipzig, Allemagne
2007
LIVRAISON, soirée de performances, présentée par Skol, Rhinoceros et Séverine Hubard, Montréal, Qc
Chih-Chien Wang
Chih-Chien Wang, Butterfly #1 - with Feet, 2003
Bio
Born in Taiwan, Chih-Chien Wang has been living in Montreal since 2002. He obtained a BFA from the Chinese Culture University in Taipei in 1994, and worked for several television companies producing documentaries before moving to Canada. Wang obtained an MFA in Studio Arts at Concordia University in 2006.
Work
Chih-Chien Wang’s practice involves the presentation of found objects and the process of collecting or recreating them. This process builds up his understanding of the living space and the cultural diversity of the city. The concerns also resemble his understanding of people, reflect the place where he lives in, and reveal his doubt about the self.
Photography, video and installation constantly serve as the main tools for Wang’s creation. With these media, he was able to preserve the fresh impression on specific moments while enjoying the capability to recreate scenery generated from the collected experiences. Photography, video and installation continue offer him great diversity of examining content and keep challenging the presentation of concepts.
Recent Exhibitions
2011
Short Sentences, Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, Montreal
2010/2011
Acts of Presence, Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal
2010
Watered Plant, February, The New Gallery, Calgary
It is what it is, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Out of Grace, Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal
2009
Jelly Project #2, Gallery 44, Toronto
2008
Time has hollows, Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, Montreal
Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme, Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal