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>> Our critics pick the art they adored

Sholem Krishtalka's picks

Genevieve Cadieux managed, yet again, to produce a great show combining subtlety, beauty and technical innovation. From her quasi-abstract large-scale photographs, to her staunch, moving video projection (furthering the ubiquity of her sister Anne-Marie's image) to the raw, emotive power of her sound installation, Cadieux proved her range and power as an artistic presence. Trust the MMFA to confine her to the basement gallery though.

And who would have thought that a small, anonymous (so anonymous, in fact, that you can walk right past it every day and still miss it) one-room gallery down in St-Henri would put together a show of such staggering originality and, dare I say, brilliance? Indeed, the textile show at Art Mùr was nothing short of excellent. Combining works by Jana Sterbak, Betty Goodwin, Lois Andison and others, the show came across as daring, intelligent and funny.



In the photography department, the Alan B. Stone retrospective, Nouveau Regard, at the Ecomusée du Fier Monde was a smashing success. It offered up the wonderfully varied and subtle work of a great queer photographer with an equally great vision. If ever anyone needed a reason to rethink the canon of Canadian artists, this was it.

The Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery's Vital Signs was not only thought-provoking and technically masterful, its interactive installations were great fun.

And last, but not least, David Moore's four-piece, serial installation show at the Centre des Arts Contemporains du Québec à Montréal was beautifully haunting.

Honourable mention goes to Gordon Cameron and Mel Davis-Yiu's Paint-Or-Die show, for having the hubris to put on a traditional painting show and doing it well.

Eve MacLauren's picks

Sculpture, video, photography and chewed gum came together in Karilee Fuglem's exhibit Evidence, at the Galerie Plein Sud in Longueuil last spring. The show continued her repudiation of the solid surface. Fuglem often portrays humans, not as individuals contained by skin but porous entities in a constant state of exchange with the outside environment. Somehow she makes the visualization of the non-visible seem simple.

This summer's Jazz from J to Z was the last of a long line of excellent shows presented at Galerie Mistral before it closed permanently in August. This exhibit featured 40 years of black and white portraits of jazz musicians by photographer Guy Le Querrec. By capturing the unguarded moments, such as Mingus pushing his bass through an airport, Le Querrec exposed the human side of these legends.

César Saez's Culture Jamming at the MAI in September, was a twist on the usual art exhibition. Instead of the artist exposing his artworks to the public, the viewers saw themselves and others looking at art. And instead of conforming to the church-like silence and white-walled traditions of art-viewing, Saez assaulted us with the universal language of mass culture: loud music and flashing television screens.

The Biennale de Montréal's visual arts component, Tout le Temps/Every Time, curated by Peggy Gale, contained a mixture of known and unknown artists. Work by interesting local artists Nicolas Baier, Massimo Guerrera, Diane Landry and Jean-Pierre Gauthier enjoyed strong representation here.

Ten paintings and two prints shown at Galerie René Blouin in November marked the end of Yves Gaucher's lifelong exploration of hard-edged minimalism (RIP: 1934-2000). All the works consisted of thin broken lines composed of blocks of colour. As my eye followed the line of colour that flowed from work to work around the room, a single, long sound formed: ohm. And a big honourable mention goes to the MMFA's springtime Pipilotti Rist show.