Donuts and hazy Venice
GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT: Walker’s “Big Pink Donut”Though New York photographer David Levinthal has put his mark on the toy-figurine close-up, Jason Walker proves there is room enough for two in this business. Walker’s incandescent oil paintings are featured at the Galerie de Bellefeuille (1367 Greene) through Aug. 10—though given the volume of works in this space you might never know it.
As one of the artists behind the acclaimed 2007 animated short Madame Tutli-Putli, Walker’s role seems to be that of an animator even when the medium is oil on panel. Though his meticulous paintings flirt with hyperrealism, he brings unexpected drama and pathos to vibrant blue equestrian soldiers, and the corny pink doughnut he paints floating on a black background is so positively luminous as to invite comparison to religious icons.
Different sorts of icon are the fuzzy Elvis and Marilyn in Joshua Jensen-Nagle’s oversized prints, also at Bellefeuille. His series of overexposed Venice and Paris plazas and hazy palazzo interiors results from rephotographing and enlarging Polaroid snapshots, a technique that obscures references to opulence just enough to make these themes worth another look-see (unlike Jim Dine’s famous but sadly redundant heart painting, just metres away).
by DAVID LEVITZ
Video art at the MAC
INTERACTIVE INDIE ROCK: A still from “Neon Bible”
When I was a teenager, music videos were like rare birds. In an effort to catch my favourite artist, I would sit through hours of artless garbage, eternally hopeful that the next video would be the one I was waiting for. Thanks to YouTube, those days of fevered anticipation are over, but with the glut of images available, it can be nice to have a little curatorial guidance.
Such is the case at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is offering a one-hour program of videos that pay respect to the artistry behind the camera. Running in a continuous loop, Vidéomusique celebrates the work of directors such as Vincent Morisset, whose interactive video for Arcade Fire’s “Neon Bible” is a vaudevillian delight.
For the most part, the first half is devoted to such technically innovative videos, but directors working with less formal approaches are also given their due. To illustrate the impact of YouTube and DIY culture on contemporary visual aesthetics, the second half focuses on one-camera wonders such as Patrick Daughters’ video for Feist’s “I Feel It All.” As curator Louise Simard explains, the program “takes us to a place where music videos become works of art.” Until Oct. 1.
by STACEY DEWOLFE
Tools of production
Putting together an art exhibit can be a lot to handle. But what do you expect when you title your exhibit WORK WORK WORK?
The work of Concordia graduate student Karen Zalamea, which will be on view at  Galerie Simon Blais (5420 St-Laurent) until Sept. 5, is a multimedia presentation about the human body as a lowly tool of production, but also the artist’s need to keep creating.
The title “resembles a cheer, like spirited words of encouragement,” says Zalamea, or conversely, “a propagandist mantra.”
For “Studies in Semblance,” she constructed 25 individual arm casts, which displayed side-by-side produce an illusion of progressive movement. While “Traces” collects the residual evidence of the plaster production process in the form of the sculptor’s footprints on the gallery floor, Zalamea made sure to leave enough ambiguities in the creation of her work to keep audiences guessing as to the exact method of their construction.
“I choose to formalize my work in a way that leaves space for other readings to unfold,” said Zalamea. “The viewer has to pitch in and do a little work.” Naturally.
by CHRISTOPHER OLSON
Encounters of a dance kind
Last year, the Théâtre de Verdure commissioned choreographer Marie Béland to create a piece that would provoke encounters between park-goers and the arts on stage in the heart of Parc Lafontaine. Béland created Les Précédents, an outdoor nomadic work for five dancers and a megaphone musician.
After performing it last summer with great success, Béland has developed a twist for the 2009 version. She and the dancers are inviting the public to learn the  structured improvisation during a free one-hour workshop.
Throughout the summer, Béland says the project has attracted a wide variety of participants. “There have been old and young people, and even women carting around their shopping bags during the workshop. It’s great!” This Sunday, Aug. 9 at 2 p.m. is the last gathering at the Théâtre de Verdure. Sign up here to particpate: ville.montreal.qc.ca/theatredeverdure.
If you’d rather kick back and observe the dancers meandering though the park, they perform from 6–8 p.m. every night before the main stage event.
by MARITES CARINO
IS IT ART?
SUITING UP: Of all the comic book-turned-movie characters, Batman is the best dressed and this has made it difficult for fans to really emulate him.
It takes little more than a towel and red underwear to turn into Superman, but  to become the Caped Crusader, at least our darker, sleeker contemporary one, you’re going to need a whole lot of leather.
Inspired by the costume Christian Bale wore in The Dark Knight, Universal Designs has replicated his batsuit, from the jacket to the gloves and boots, capturing every ab-defining detail.
Made of Kevlar and moulded leather and using removable body armour, the suit is the official Dark Knight leather motorcycle gear. No word yet on just how much it will cost, but chances are you won’t need a movie-sized budget to buy one.
udreplicas.com
Arts hole
DIFFERING DEGREES: Twenty-nine different artists, including Mark Prent, Majka Kwiatowska, Kristen McCrea and Mirror contributor Rick Trembles bring their hallucinogenic, erotic and trashy visions together for the group show Farenheit at Usine 106U (160 Roy E.) The vernissage takes place tonight, Thursday, Aug. 6 from 5–11 p.m. It runs until Aug. 31. • WINDOW LOOKERS: Many galleries are closing for a mid-summer break but chances are you can still check out some art in their windows. Lucie Duval’s Amputation et manipulation, featuring bunnies made out of old socks, is on view until Sept
Artistat
The number of photos on view at État Sauvage, an exhibit of some of the world’s best wildlife photography, under the big top in front of the Bell Centre until Sept. 7, an initiative of Montreal-based photographer André Cornellier: 130
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