Landscapes live!

Looking for contemporary art in the Belgo Building is like shopping at Village des Valeurs for clothes: no shortage of the stuff but it's rarely good. There is the odd treasure, however: Observatoire 4's remarkable show Bleu Risque, featuring paintings by Rafael Sottolichio and Martin Bureau, is one such gem.

Bureau is an excellent draughtsman and painter, gracefully at ease on both large and small canvases. His lush, sensual surfaces attract and hold the viewer's attention. Sottolichio's tighter, dryer, more mechanical installations consist of paintings of road maps on the floor, each matched with a painting of a sky, hanging from the ceiling. The viewer floats in between.

It is noteworthy that the exhibit is devoted to the landscape genre-- Bureau paints the cityscape, Sottolichio paints the literal landscape, each with beautiful results. Who said landscape painting was dead? --Sholem Krishtalka

At space 426, 372 Ste-Catherine W., until April 8. :

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