Motor Sport?: Clint Neufeld and Jason Gringler at the Parisian Laundry

Kissing Sisyphus by Jason Gringler, 2009, 72 by 84 inches, acrylic, collage, broken mirror, spray enamel, plexiglass

The Parisian Laundry continues to provide Montreal with avant garde installation exhibitions. Clint Neufeld and Jason Gringler's joint show celebrates the beauty of the mechanical and re-examine the concept of what is traditionally conceived of as masculine.

Neufeld's ceramic pieces are porcelain depictions of motors and car transmissions, decorated with dainty floral motifs commonly found on dish ware. Organized around the room on hip level cabinets, each engine component is turned into an artwork demanding contemplating. Initially, the viewer is amused by the juxtaposition of the traditionally masculine car part presented in such a feminine medium as porcelain. However, the cool white porcelain also beckons the viewer to appreciate the beauty of the motor, its unintended beauty and disguised symmetries. It is not so much as a jarring blend of masculine and feminine elements, but rather, a celebration of an ordinary object, elevated to the status of the Beautiful.

In the Bunker, four large paintings by Grigler also celebrate every day existence and mundanity as well. Constructed out of everyday architectural components -- enamel, glass, plexiglass, mirror, metal pieces, and spray paint -- these abstract pieces ask the viewer to consider their materials as objects of contemplation. The pieces resemble angular puzzles, with their components cut into long sharp triangles and rectangles, fitted together in an organic composition. Although rather masculine in their media and size, the paintings also utilize arrangement in a less aggressive and more familiar style. The blend of the two leaves the viewer rather satisfied with a tension brought to balance.

Stinger Editions Master Printers at the FOFA (Concordia University)

Betty Goodwin A Burst of Bloody Air 2003 printed by Christopher Armijo


Concordia University's various galleries are always a treat to visit. They feature thought-provoking artists, both cutting edge famous and unknown students. The fofa, in particular, run by the faculty of the Concordia's Fine Art program, curates worthy exhibits. In conjunction with Stinger Editions, the print center of Concordia, curators Judy Garfin and Cheryl Kolak Dudek, are featuring the work of master printers Christopher Armijo, Matthew Letzelter, and Cheryl Kolak Dudek printing works for David Elliott, Janet Werner, Naomi London, Robert Racine, Pierre Doiron, Francois Morelli, Ed Pein, Betty Goodwin, Roland Poulin, Barbara Steinman, and even Anne Carson. Tying together these works is the theme Concerning Sisyphus.

Sisyphus is an interesting choice, since he was a bit of a wild man prior to his afterlife. The gods punished him with eternally pushing a rock up a hill, at which point it rolls back down and he must start again. The boredom and monotony of Sisyphus' life became the subject of an existential essay by Camus (The Myth of Sisyphus) that celebrates the mundane of life. The final words are, "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

While I do not easily connect the works on display to the theme, I can certainly relate to the joy found in the tedium of printmaking. For the same result (or at least, the possibility of approximating the same result), one must repeat the process of re-inking each time. And printmakers, though no less talented or creative than artists in any other media, are often forgotten or treated as hick second cousins to oil painters and bronze sculptors. Hmmm... I find this curious since Andy Warhol, Picasso, and Rembrandt all produced prints, just to name a few. Perhaps this is because print work is a collaboration between the artist who creates the work and its design and the master printer who gives that work physical body through the press. Nonetheless, these less familiar artists of the print world produce works of great beauty and timelessness.

In terms of a collection, the works are extremely diverse and represent a range of printing techniques (monoprint, lithograph, screenprint). I am more drawn to the figurative work of Betty Goodwin and recognizable objects of Pierre Doiron, in contrast with the abstractions of Roland Poulin and the erotic playfulness of Ed Pien. But this is a matter of taste, rather than quality. Hopefully this show will put this art form with its wide range of applications more readily in the public eye.

Art Opening at the SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art OIkos/Habitacles

These scenes are typical of Couturier's work on San Diego (these are not the ones in the exhibit). These are from the lawrence miller gallery.

SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art in the Bellgo building is hosting the first of a two part show entitled OIKOS/Habitacles curated by Sylvain Campeau. This outstanding exhibit focuses on the subject of landscape. Traditionally, the landscape is treated as a subject of contemplation, where the artist is separate and removed. The landscape does not change by the artist’s presence, and his (or her) presence is transient. The artwork is a transient view of an eternal object.

OIKOS/Habitcules is interested in the intrusion of the artist on landscape, as well as the melding of nature with manmade constructions. These photographs, some digitally altered, present three different approaches to the subject of landscape and do so with challenging and exciting results.

Isabelle Hayeur’s (Canada) three pieces are digital photographs, enlarged and altered to create “new and improbable” landscapes. Jour/Nuit seems a subtle nod to Magritte’s L’Empire des Lumieres, a surreal image of a house at night, with a blue sky beyond. In Hayeur’s image, a winter stand of trees, just at the end of fall, obscures the view of a row of houses still lit from the previous night along a lake. The colorless, bright sky, is touched with the reddish colors of the sun’s arrival (or perhaps departure). Cathedrale and Complicite are equally fascinating. In Cathedrale, a forest grove of trees on an irregular landscape is melded with metal poles that are camouflaged by the tree trunks. Complicite contrasts a spiral, metal stairway with a tall young tree. The juxtaposition of the natural and the manmade allows the viewer to contemplate the timelessness of the living wood and metal. Both rot and decay eventually, yet both seem to exist beyond our own lives.

Stephane Coutourier’s (France) Diptych on San Diego resemble photos of gigantic dioramas, though in fact the viewer is looking at photographs of new suburban developments with the lifeless, but ever changing, desert in the background. The imposition of man on his landscape, his need to live at a frontier and ever extend it, is implicit in the photos. Coutourier captures how the suburban structures force a generic, American life upon the barrenness and pristine vigor of the desert as well. These exciting photos demand one contemplate how man dominates and changes his landscape.

Finally, the more subtle series of untitled bunkers by Mark Ruwedel (US) brings together a series of black and white photos of cement structures set into various landscapes around the world. Much like Coutourier, Ruwedel captures the interplay between the manmade and the natural. Though, unlike Coutourier, the vigor and dominance of man is decreased. The crumbling, empty bunkers that seem defined as much by their empty interiors as by their long lasting cement are hardly an example of man’s triumph. Rather, the impression is of long, gradual decay in a landscape that changes seasonally, but lasts eternally. Furthermore, the wide varieties of locations where the bunkers come form imply that the desire of man to build himself into nature, as well as his inability to sustain his creations, is universal. Among the photos, the bunkers of the Mojave Desert, Devil’s Side, and Halifax stand out.for their unique shapes and particular solitude.

I eagerly await the second part of this exhibit, which brings together the work of three more artists who address landscape in innovative ways as well.

FIFA -- Festival of International Films on Art

Every year, Montreal's horrible winter is broken up by a film festival that is certain to awaken and delight the senses. The FIFA, the Festival of International Films on Art, showcases films about... well... ART. The films cover topics such as the lives of artists and famous works, as well as museums and nearly anything else you could possibly think of, so long as it relates to art.

The FIFA is particularly cool because its the only festival of its kind in the world. This year, the festival, running from March 6-16 showcases 290 films from 30 countries on 27 different disciplines including architecture, theatre, video art, dance, art history, painting, and photography.

Tickets are just $12 a film ($10 if you count as a youth). For more info, including the programming, check out the website at: http://www.artfifa.com/

Art Matters

Yes, the annual Concordia art matters festival is back and now is the chance to SOAK IT UP. Although I missed the first week of the festival, including the much beloved Nuit Blanche (an all night party), things are still on-going.

Here are a few happenings...

March 7 * A Place to Bloom at The Long Hall (450 Beaumont): 11 artists responding to the question: how does connection to place influence community. This exhibit includes paintings, performances, video installations. eeee.

March 9 * Truces and Tract: The Staged Interaction Series at Studio 303 (372 Ste-Catherine W., suite 303). Dance of all sorts, including Fringe Fest favourite Amy Blackmore. This lady sure gets around the arts scene!

March 10 * In Details at the FOFA (1515 St. Catherine). I like this theme already. Attention to detail gives purpose. This is a multimedia assemblage of five artists. Also V is for Wideo at the Vav Gallery (1395 Rene Levesque O.) showcases video technology. Their Vernissage is on March 11,th.

March 11 * Hot Dog Cart at Théâtre Ste-Catherine (264 Ste-Catherine E.). This is the description "imagine that the show is a hot dog and the performers are the condiments." It also includes something called swamp sex. What is that?

March 13 * On Line at the Visual Voice Gallery (372 St. catherine O.). Drawings, sculptures, and installations involving lines. Also, A Rested Art is at Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent) including bands such as the Dukes Of The Archipelago and Boys Who Say No.

March 15 * the Grand Finale. The closing party. Details TBA (always a mystery). :(