On display

Sticks in a shed, terracotta warriors, an epic Canadian battle, awkward moments and more in store for arts

by STACEY DEWOLFE

January 13, 2011

YOU LOOKIN’ AT ME? Daryl Vocat’s “Gazing Into Liberation’s Furry Chest”

Though many galleries reopened their doors last weekend, tonight, Thursday, Jan. 13, is as good a night as any to get going on your 2011 vernissage crawl. Things get started at Battat Contemporary (7245 Alexandra, #100) with painter Beth Stuart’s Two Sticks in a Shed. Drawing on a number of influences, from surrealist philosophy to 1960s feminist art, Stuart’s work invites you into a strangely familiar world that straddles the line between representation and abstraction. Downtown, Joyce Yahouda (372 Ste-Catherine W., #516) welcomes the New Year with two multi-disciplinary shows, Annie Briard’s the space in between and Ana Rewakowicz’s Mobile Habitat.

AT HOME ON THE BEACH: From Ana Rewakowicz’s Mobile Habitat

On Saturday, Jan. 15, stop by Maison Kasini (372 Ste-Catherine W., #408), which kicks off its season with an exhibition of snapshot-esque screen prints by Daryl Vocat entitled Awkward Moments. From there, swing down to Parisian Laundry (3550 St-Antoine W.) for Austin-based photographer Susi Brister’s Menagerie and Petit losange laqué veiné by Valérie Blass, whose “Femme panier” was recently acquired by the Musée d’art contemporain.

Over at Leonard and Bina Ellen (1400 Maisonneuve W.), you can check out Martha Wilson’s Staging the Self, a retrospective of the artist and feminist activist’s photographic and performative work over four decades. And way uptown, Art Mûr (5826 St-Hubert) celebrates its 15th anniversary with an exhibition featuring the taxidermied wonders of sculptor Sarah Garzoni, photographs by Ewa Monika Zebrowski and paintings by Renée Duval.

As with most of the shows above, a selection of videos by Lebanese video maker Rabih Mroué will be on view throughout the month of January, but the artist will be on hand at the Cinémathèque québécoise (335 de Maisonneuve E.) on the 29th of the month to present an evening screening. Dazibao is behind the exhibition.

DISTROBOTO, WOLFE VS. MONTCALM

ALBANIA ALL THE WAY: From Anri Sala’s Around Me

On Thursday, Feb. 3, the Musée d’art contemporain (185 Ste-Catherine W.) breaks new ground, introducing Canadians to Albanian artist Anri Sala with a solo show based around his 2008 film, Answer Me, and hosting the premiere exhibition of a new monumental modular sculpture by Young & Giroux. The Museum of Fine Arts (1380 Sherbrooke W.) opens The Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army on Friday, Feb. 11. Comprised of over 300 artefacts, the collection takes visitors back through 1,000 years of Chinese art.

February also offers Montrealers the chance to check out the drawings and projections of Sobey Art Award recipient Daniel Barrow. The aptly titled Good Gets Better opens, with the artist present, at SBC Gallery (372 Ste-Catherine W., #507) on Saturday, Feb. 12. The following Wednesday, Feb. 16, DHC/ART (451 St-Jean) reopens its doors with an exhibition by internationally renowned conceptual artist Ceal Floyer, whose work asks us to look anew at the objects that surround us. As always, the show will be accompanied by a teaching component in which visitors will engage in their own exploration of Floyer’s minimalist practice. And for those who prefer their art on a pocket-sized level, Monastiraki (5478 St-Laurent) will host a month-long retrospective celebration of Distroboto and its contributors.

CENTRE STAGE: Ceal Floyer’s “Double Act”

One of the bigger shows to hit town this season is Kent Monkman’s My Treaty Is With the Crown, which on Friday, March 4, transforms the Leonard and Ellen Bina into a military camp. Replete with objects of historical import on loan from the MMFA and the McCord Museum, it re-imagines the battle between Wolfe and Montcalm. Later that month, Friday, March 18, sees the opening of filmmaker Barry Doupé’s Whose Toes? at Articule (262 Fairmount W.).

And as April, that cruellest of months, rolls around, there are a number of shows on the agenda: Suzy Lake’s Reduced Performing at Donald Browne (372 Ste-Catherine W., #528), new works by Montreal-based sculptor Donna Akrey at Monastiraki, and the reopening of 2011 noisemaker Iliana Antonova’s and David Armstrong-Six’s Silver Flag (6803 Waverly). ❉