Girls, girls, girls

Serendipitously, there are two exhibitions in town at the moment that present images of the fairer sex. Picturing Her—Images of Girlhood is at the McCord museum (690 Sherbrooke W.) and George Zimbel’s Les Femmes is at Galerie Thérèse Dion Art Contemporain (372 Ste-Catherine W., #527).

Images of Girlhood includes photos, posters, sketchbooks and printed material from the 1860s to the 21st century. The images come from personal family albums, the Notman archives and contemporary artists such as Eve K. Tremblay and Clara Gutsche. The exhibition itself is a bit disjointed, but interesting, with its broad (ha ha) range of historical material and contemporary art. The girls pictured represent symbols of accepted stereotypes, not individuals in their own right.

To see the girls once they have grown up, check out the strong personalities exposed on Zimbel’s silver gelatin prints. Mostly from the 1950s, Zimbel’s photographs capture the spirit of unknown women alongside some very well known faces. Beautiful pictures of Carol Channing, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe are not to be missed. Images of Girlhood runs until April 2, info: 398-7100. Les Femmes runs until January 2, info: 398-9204. —Christine Redfern

Dental damn!

Two dentists’ clinics in town are upping the art ante big time, stretching out from the ordinary depressing images of decaying teeth, depressing images of really nice teeth, and drawings of toothbrushes dancing with tubes of toothpaste.

Exhibit A: Dr. Bao Pham, who traded in his spray can for a couple bottles of flouride and a career as a dentist a few years back, has kept tight ties with Montreal’s graf community. He’s rounded up almost 40 artists to remodel and graffiti up a yard’s worth of miniature model trains in Blueprint, inspired by NYC’s Tag the System show, which featured moulded model trains painted by local writers. But Blueprint’s trains are better, says bow, because they’re not moulded and their wheels really turn: “They’re real toys!” Check it out at the Clinique Dentaire Denis Gilford (4846 St-Denis) until Jan. 15.

Exhibit B: Self-described “Brunette Bombshell” Hermès joins eight other artists in Neuf, a mélange of homo-eroticism, x-ray art and more abstract affairs at Galerie Dentaire (1239 Amherst) until Jan. 27. Floss up and head down. —Matthew Woodley

Top ten

When choreographer Marie Chouinard approached long-time company dancer Carol Prieur to collaborate on a project that would put the interpreter front and centre, Prieur bristled at the thought. “I was touched, honoured and moved, but I thought, ‘No thanks!’” she says. But somewhere along the way, she had a change of heart and signed up for Carol Prieur, une rencontre, an eclectic evening celebrating her decade of work with the imaginative choreographer, and it’s a good thing.

Rewinding through Chouinard’s repertoire, Prieur slips into the poetic solo classic L’après-midi d’un faune, then moves ahead with an excerpt from a new work in progress that teases out movement from ink drawings by poet-painter Henri Michaux. On the projection screen you can take in the facially expressive Cantique No. 2, and a video Prieur describes as a “backstage pass” to Chouinard’s creative process. At the Cinquième Salle (Place des Arts) until Dec. 10, 8 p.m., $24–$28, 842-2122. —Marites Carino

Heavy petting

The diaristic art of Elisabeth Belliveau, celebrating the magic of the everyday moment, began to find itself an audience a few years ago. “I’d just moved to Montreal and I didn’t know anybody,” Belliveau explains. “I started to spend a lot of time alone drawing and writing, and then I wanted to connect with the community so I started making zines.”

The buzz around her exquisite zines landed her a book deal, and so she’s launching Something to pet the cat about tonight, Dec. 8, 9 p.m. at Café Esperanza (5490 St-Laurent). She’ll be signing books and screening a couple of her claymation films, along with similar projections by Jamie Q, Naomi, Jerome and Martine, Logan Macdonald, John Bride and Karin Zuppiger. Free! —Vincent Tinguely

Is it Art?

FEMALES ROLL: “As of 2004, who ranked higher among the world’s wealthiest, Oprah Winfrey, or Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling?” Oprah, yo! And that’s just one of the gazillions of questions shedding light on women’s lives and achievements in EVE’s Quest, a brand new board game conceived by Montrealers Joanna Broadhurst and Odette McCarthy. The game builds on a legacy spawned by the two Montreal journalists who invented Trivial Pursuit in the late ’70s, adding to traditional trivia charades, drawing, singing and intuition challenges. Boys are welcome to play too, as is anyone falling within the traditional board game age centennial (this one set from 14–114.) Eve’s Quest is available at Chapters, Indigo and a bunch of other stores listed at www.evesquest.com, and $2 for every game sold in Canada goes to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

ArtsHole

BEST OF THE PRESS: The 40 finalists for the Antoine-Desilets prize for best Quebec press photo of 2005 go up on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at the Maison de la culture Frontenac (2550 Ontario E., metro Frontenac). Divided into sports, news, features, photo reportage and portrait categories, they’ll be on display until Jan. 22. • SQUALOR SNAPS: Matthieu Brouillard contrasts dirty scenes with the clean, digital photography he uses to present them in Les cadavres anticipés, a documentary-esque exhibition of dysfunctional folks in down-and-out settings. It’s up at Dazibao (4001 Berri, #202) until Dec. 17.

ARTISTAT: Average number of ballet shoes used each year by the 90 dancers in the Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal’s The Nutcracker, at Place des Arts, from Dec. 11–30: 1,500

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