VISUAL ART:
Let’s get visual

An abundance of art to see you through the summer

by CHRISTINE REDFERN

If you’re reading this, you are, like myself, not high enough up the visual arts food chain to be hanging out at the Venice Biennale attending the opening of Jana Sterbak’s video From Here to There. Luckily, right here in Quebec there are lots of art goodies to check out this summer—minus the gondoliers.

General Idea Editions is at Concordia University’s Ellen Gallery (1400 de Maissoneuve W.) until Aug. 9. It marks the first comprehensive gathering of the impressive and influential body of editions created by Jorge Zontal, AA Bronson and Felix Partz over 25 years. This collection of mass-produced works includes postcards, prints, posters as well as wallpaper, balloons and pins.

Estonian artist Ene-Liis Semper’s Four Works opens next Friday at Saidye Bronfman’s Liane and Danny Taran Gallery (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine). The four videos in the exhibition include FF/REW, Semper’s piece from the 2001 Venice Biennale. The absurd, roadrunneresque video shows her repeated, seemingly successful attempts at suicide. All the videos capture performances by Semper done specifically for the camera.

From July 8–Aug. 31, the French artist cooperative Buy-Sellf is at Quartier Éphemère (745 Ottawa). In collaboration with Galerie Clark, Quartier Éphemère will produce and present artworks from over 30 Canadian and French artists, including BGL, Ana Rewakowicz, Manuela Lalic and the Instant Coffee collective. The Buy-Sellf cooperative creates catalogues of mail order art: non-industrial creations, multiples and research prototypes derived from artists’ practices and experimental projects. Through the medium of its catalogue, Buy-Sellf reflects consumer society in a provocative and droll manner.

Retro’s in

An excellent crop of retrospectives can be enjoyed in the air-conditioned environs of the big museums. The Musée d’art contemporain is currently showing the highly recommended Nan Goldin until Sept. 7. Meanwhile, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has the acclaimed Édouard Vuillard: Post-Impressionist Master until Aug. 24, and Françoise Sullivan opens June 19 and runs until Oct. 5. The retrospective on local artist Sullivan includes over 100 works culled from her multidisciplinary career that has spanned five decades.

If you are looking to get out of town, go to Quebec City’s newly renamed Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (1-866-220-2150) to see Doublures, curated by Montrealer Johanne Lamoureux. An exhibition of work by 18 artists from Canada and abroad whose medium is clothing includes work by Dominique Blain, Lucy Orta, Cornelia Parker and Majida Khattari. The vernissage is June 18, exhibition runs until Oct. 12.

If you prefer not-so-contemporary art, see a collection of artifacts that span over 1,000 years in Archeology and the Bible: From King David to the Dead Sea Scrolls, at Pointe-à-Callière Museum (350 Place Royale) from June 17–Nov. 2.

Off the wall

Most of the artist-run galleries close up for the summer, but luckily for us, some just move their activities outside. Dare-Dare (460 Ste-Catherine W, #505) is involved in no less than three hors murs projects around town. First, Sally Lee Sheeks from Helsinki gives public tours of models she made of three local fountains June13–14. Second, alongside the Lachine Canal over three consecutive weekends starting July 10 is Sieste de BUREAU. The installation, consisting of five plastic tents, is by the two-person collective BUREAU©, whose art explores, what else, the workplace. Across town around the Jean-Talon Market look for Louis-Philippe Ogé’s wire baskets with wheels to be used by shoppers in his intervention Les fruits de poteaux.

Keep your eyes open June 28–29 for Articule’s special project, Archeopteryx8 by Erik Kaiel’s performance collective from Washington D.C. on the downtown streets of Montreal and at Studio 303. And lastly, don’t forget Nuit Blanche sur Tableau Noir, the four-day festival that starts today and features sculpture, installations, performances, body painting, kids’ stuff and music. Tonight, June 12, from 10 p.m.–2 a.m., Mont-Royal will be closed from St-Hubert to de Lormier for street painting by 50 artists.