VISUAL ART:
Heaps of steaming art

Tantalizing trash, parodistic parades, Lego lands and more

by CHRISTINE REDFERN

Diving right in then… tonight, June 9, Douglas Coupland, best known as the author of Generation X, is over entertaining the crowds at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. At 7 p.m., his talk, “Rebuilding Your Brain—The Lego Way” marks the opening of his installation Super City, which runs until Nov. 6. Coupland has built an imaginary cityscape in the CCA out of Lego and other ’60s modular children’s toys, including scale models of architectural landmarks such as the CN Tower and the World Trade Center.

Also this evening, starting at 10 p.m., be part of the Stars sur boulevard Drive rodeo procession down St-Laurent, led by Quebec City’s Les Fermières Obsédées. This parade of parody heralds the start of their exhibition at Galerie La Centrale (4296 St-Laurent), which runs until July 10. Unlike most artist-run centres, programming at La Centrale and Dare-Dare continues throughout the summer. Keep an eye out for upcoming Dare-Dare events in Viger Square by Montrealers Rose-Marie Goulet, Jean-Maxime Dufresne and Virginie Laganière.

Painter Janet Werner’s recent body of work can be seen from June 24–Aug. 24 at the Saidye’s Liane and Danny Taran Gallery. Well-known for her portraits of invented characters, Werner’s latest large-scale pieces plumb new popular source material, such as photographs of actors and models, 18th-century figurines, Royal Dalton porcelain figures and dolls. The gallery will also be holding a special soirée featuring Chantal Ackerman’s film Tout une Nuit, date tbc.

To artistically celebrate the summer occurrence of stinking trash, the group exhibition Trashformations sinks in at Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain from June 15–Aug. 13. Go see lovely still lives from Louis Joncas’s “Detritus” series, work constructed out of lint collected by Karilee Fuglem, Jerome Fortin’s seascape made from recycled plastic bottles and Michel de Broin’s “Jacuzzi Dumpster.”

More of Fortin’s work can be seen alongside 10 other Quebec and Canadian artists at the Musée d’art contemporain’s exhibition Appearances. When the days become too hot to handle, I recommend cooling off by watching Damien Moppett’s film 1815/1962—not because I think the relationship between the film and the little models in front is overly exciting, but because there is something physically refreshing about watching Moppett wander through the dense greens and huge trees of a BC forest. This very diverse show includes witty work by Tim Lee, Ana Rewakowicz, Germaine Koh and others. Definitely check out this large exhibition that everyone is gushing about at least once over the summer.

Holgategate

If you’re more of a traditionalist when it comes to art, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts won’t disappoint with its comprehensive retrospective on Edwin Holgate. Often called the eighth member of the Group of Seven, the exhibition contains the portraits, nudes and wood engravings for which Holgate was famous. It’s also interesting from a historical perspective as the murals commissioned from Holgate for the 1939 World’s Fair and the National Film Board’s footage of a Skeena Village from 1926 show a very different Canada than exists today.

When you want to get out of the Montreal, the National Gallery in Ottawa presents Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and the Renaissance in Florence. Don’t expect too much Michelangelo or Leonardo, but do look forward to over 100 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints from the artistic zenith of Florence between 1500-1550.

Another good getaway is to some small towns down Autoroute 40 between Trois-Rivières and Quebec City. The first Biennale Internationale du Lin de Portneuf has a large contemporary art component entitled LIeNs, which features 13 artists from Quebec, Belgium, France and Finland, including Karen Trask, Georgia Volpe and Yolande Dupuis. Follow all the happenings of this multifaceted event online at www.biennaledulin.ca. Hot, hot, hot.