This year eight Brooklyn art organizations have teamed up with eight from Montreal to produce a series of collaborations, first here then in Brooklyn. The Detours of the Possible, from A.I.R. Gallery and Les Territoires, features eight women artists: Aimée Burg, Julie Côté, Véronique Ducharme, Bang-Geul Han, Kathleen Schneider, Barbara Siegel, Catherine Tremblay and Minna Pöllänen. Pöllänenâ€s piece, Transformable Platform for Detailed Landscape, is on view at the corner of De Maisonneuve and St. Urbain, and the others are at Les Territoires.

Les Territoires is presenting this show as narrative. The introductory paragraph invites the viewer to participate in the tales that the artists have offered, and each work evokes a sense of participation, be it a game, video, photograph, sculpture or installation. We search for the story and are drawn in.

One work that I found particularly striking was Catherine Tremblay’s Une foule d’autres / A Host of Others, an ink jet print with polyester film, almost life size at 51” x 66″. One sees a muted landscape of red rock and sand on a grey day overlaid with transparent images of people. These figures are shadowy and it is hard to tell where one ends and another begins. The viewerâ€s own reflection is clearer than the people who stare back. The work demands that you wonder who they are and what story you are being shown. Standing there I attempted to decipher the image and its narrative. This was the case with the show in general. Each work has a story, but because of their ambiguous nature it is hard to make out what stories are being told.

Montreal Brooklyn is a great project. It creates partnerships between the two cities. On top of that the shows provide a new way to explore art in the city and introduce us to new artists. I urge you to visit all eight spaces and see whatâ€s in store.

Les Territoires, space 527
Montreal-Brooklyn
The Detours from the Possible
October 20 – November 17, 2012
http://lesterritoires.org

Miss America, the latest show by Kent Monkman at Pierre François Ouellette art contemporain, is not to be missed. Monkman, famous for his works that re-write the (white) canon, has done it yet again. Monkman “indigenizes” European-Western art by taking inspiration from famous paintings and genres then ever so slightly (or sometimes overtly) changing them, remaking our perceptions of the “New World” in a variety of ways, by adding famous figures from another age, hinting at gay sex, placing Native Americans side-by-side with their European conquerors, and even inserting his own alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.

The work of honour at PFOAC this time round is Miss America. Taking inspiration from Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Monkman has set out to rework the Italian artistâ€s ceiling cycle from the Treppenhaus Residenz at Würsburg in Germany in order to play with the racist stereotypes of today and yesterday.

Some of Monkmanâ€s works subtly interject mislaid peoples or scenes, with the titles providing clues to what is going on. These pieces are sometimes so close to the original counterpart that curators will place a Monkman amongst eighteenth century landscape paintings (last I checked you can see this at the Musée des Beaux Arts here in Montreal). Miss America, however, is not subtle. This large painting (213 x 335 cm) is the first thing you see when you enter the gallery. In the centre are a large group of people hanging over a waterâ€s edge. Behind them in the background are Mayan ruins, the sole clue that this is Central America. To the side two men are carrying a trunk implying pirate booty, although one is wearing tight jeans, Nike shoes and has a Fleur de Lys tattoo, not necessarily your typical Blackbeard garb. In the fray the Statue of Liberty points a yellow gun in one hand and holds an indigenous baby in the other; her dress is falling off her shoulders and there is a tattoo on her chest. To the other side a Chinese man is building a railway, a turbaned Muslim is taking pictures on his cellphone and a Native American man has his arm around a Jesuit priest.  Above them all Miss Chief Eagle Testickle sits astride a large alligator. This ambitious piece, loaded with iconic faces and familiar stereotypes, uses humour to make a serious point.

While there are many other works of Monkmanâ€s on view at PFOAC. I wonâ€t spoil it. Instead you should go for yourself and discover how Monkman has rewritten eighteenth century Canadian landscape painting and in turn indigenized it, turning phrases and ideas onto their heads in order to demonstrate how ludicrous they still are.

Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contamporain, space 216
Kent Monkman
Miss America
Vernissage 2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
www.pfoac.com

There are currently two shows at Galerie Roger Bellemare/Christian Lambert: Roger Bellemareâ€s Mes Hommages and Goodridge Robertâ€s Pictures at an Exhibition. Together these shows draw our attention to the format of exhibitions and the source of artists†inspiration.

Pictures at an Exhibition is a sparse show, demonstrating as much the power of the bare walls as the works on display. On the first wall is a vitrine with books (ex Joan and Goodridge by Joan Roberts and Voyages: Canadaâ€s Heritage Rivers), photographs, paints, a small painting and a map. Hanging on the wall alongside are twelve watercolours, all landscapes, mainly of rivers. The book in the vitrine, as well as some of the titles (Gatineau, Georgian Bay and Laurentians, to name a few) of the works refer to Canadian waterways. The title of Goodridgeâ€s show places an emphasis on the curatorial process. The pieces pay homage to Canadian nature as well as the legacy of landscape painting in Canadian art history (be it nineteenth century or the Group of Seven). This show presents what appear to be straightforward and easy to digest works, but at the same time invokes our history of landscape painting and the question of what is Canadian art.

In the other exhibition space are Roger Bellemare originals, each of which is dedicated to someone, many of them musicians, such as Glen Gould. In the show are large works and small numbered prints of the same pieces. All these pieces have an aspect of collage in them, but the style is otherwise quite varied. Pour Anne (Anne Hébert) is sculptural, a standing vitrine with a large board on which envelopes, rocks and dried leaves are scattered. Berceuse pour Betty (Betty Goodwin) is an ink jet print of a clarinet player and an amorphous shape piece of music, with the collage rendered on the computer instead of by hand.

While one show is dedicated to direct inspiration the other ties educational tools to the works in order to help inform us on the works of the artist. Together these shows make us ask ourselves “where do we find our inspiration?”

Galerie Roger Bellemare / Galerie Christian Lambert, spaces 501 & 502
Goodridge Roberts – Pictures at an exhibition
Roger Bellemare – Mes hommages
August 4 – September 22, 2012
www.rogerbellemare.com

Between the Sea and the Sky, the current group show at Pierre François Ouellette Art Contemporain, presents a series of artworks by Luc Courchesne, Jérôme Fortin and Karilee Fuglem on the theme of artists exploring nature, specifically water and sky, in their work.

Luc Courchesne includes a selection from his Shore series, which uses a panoscopic lens to film coastlines around the world. Instead of its usual flat line the shore forms a globe with the sky creating a ring around it. The horizon is no longer ‘horizontal†but spherical. These two-dimensional pieces restore the third dimension to our perception of the planet. The effect is arresting and awe-inspiring.

Jérôme Fortin also creates landscapes, but his methods could not be more different. In this show he presents two series. The first, Marine, consists of “wall mounted seascapes” made of plastic bottles that the artist collected from the shores of the St. Lawrence Seaway. He cuts the bottles into strips and arranges them into circular works. Some of the pieces are monochromatic, made entirely from clear plastic or blue-tinted bottles, while the larger ones use a variety of colours. Fortin has taken objects that pollute our waters and transformed them into images of the ocean itself. The second group of works are from his Soleils series. Mounted on the wall are abstract suns made of telephone wire. With several on one wall (all different sizes and coloured wires) you have the impression that the suns are interacting with the plastic waves. Fortinâ€s works create their own horizon between the sun and the sea and we exist in between those two spaces.

Karilee Fuglemâ€s works bring a more abstract tone to the show. While both Fortin and Courchesne play with abstraction within their pieces, Fuglemâ€s works are abstract in and of themselves. In a separate black room Drift hovers below the ceiling. Made of two thousand metres of nylon thread, it hangs from two corners and one wall and appears to float in the air. The interwoven work resembles a net, but upon closer examination you realize that it is more complicated. Little bulbs hang down and within the work the woven threads create twists and turns. In the other room are some water drawings, made on vellum. Using a circular motion, Fuglem has painted water onto the surface. Once the water dries it leaves an imprint. These works are textured landscapes, delicate and subtle, made entirely from the water altering the material without changing the colour of the surface. Drift and the Water Drawings present an idea of the water and its magnificence as well as its subtleties.

Between the Sea and the Sky is an impressive show. It presents the work of three talented artists approaching the theme in different ways. I recommend this show to anyone who is interested in new ways that artists respond to nature and the role of abstraction in doing so.

Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain, space 216
Luc Courchesne, Jerôme Fortin, Karilee Fuglem
Between the Sea and the Sky
July 14 – August 11, 2012
www.pfoac.com

Paintings, the current summer show at Joyce Yahouda is a group show guest curated by Jean-Louis René, featuring the work of four young artists, Paul Hardy, Jean-François Lauda, Jenna Meyers and David Gagnon. All four work with paint, however in different ways.This show explores not only the possibility of painting, but also the conversations created when you place very different works next to each other. How do seemingly different pieces speak with each other?

Jean-François Lauda’s work are abstract watercolours on somerset paper. Using pale greens, blues, reds and purples Lauda explores lines and borders. The works look like he made lines of various widths and lengths with tape and painter around them. Displayed side by side, they explore where the paint canâ€t go rather than where it can. We think about the blank empty spaces as much as those that are painted – an experiment in negatives. On the other side of the room are Paul Hardyâ€s works. Hardy paints on a larger scale. Whereas Laudaâ€s biggest of lauda’s work is 30” x 22″, Hardy’s smallest is 60” x 48″. Using oil on canvas Hardy presents oil paint as both the medium and subject. History Painting is a play on the monochrome. Seafoam covers the entire canvas, with certain points revealing darker undertones. We see the various textures rather than a figurative scene. Hardyâ€s covered canvases reveal the blank spaces on Laudaâ€s pieces just as Laudaâ€s sparsely painted works highlight the heaviness found in oil paint.

In the second room are figurative works by Jenna Meyers and David Gagnon. While both are figurative painters, the two could not be more different. Meyers has childlike figures that verge on the grotesque while Gagnon paints still lifes that look like collages; pieces of paper taped on top of walls and inanimate objects. Gagnon excels in precision and delicate brushwork whereas Meyers explores alternate realities and how figures can be conveyed even when the paints drip into the other colours.

René has curated a show based on spontaneity, thinking about the works and practices individually then as a conversation between one another. How does the watercolor of Lauda converse with the still lifes of Gagnon? How does Gagnon precise work highlight the imprecision in Meyerâ€s work. How do Meyers pieces make us feel about the exploration of colour and form found in Hardyâ€s paintings? And how do Hardyâ€s paintings highlight the negative spaces in Laudaâ€s watercolours?

Galerie Joyce Yahouda, space 516
Jean-François Lauda, Paul Hardy, Jenna Meyers and David Gagnon,
Guest Curated by Jean-Louis René
Paintings
June 28 – August 11, 2012
www.joyceyahoudagallery.com

Galerie Donald Browneâ€s summer show Who’s Paying You? presents a series of artworks that interrogate financial extravagance. There is a variety of media present, such as Jerôme Havreâ€s sculpture, Tag, Damien Hirstâ€s ceramic plate, Home Sweet Home, and Patrick Bernatchezâ€s photograph, Rose, all exploring themes of indulgence.

Eric Simonâ€s Collapsed Incomplete Open Cube is a series of pieces that pay homage to Sol Lewitt. Simon has taken a cube and undone it, presenting the opened cube in form of sculpture as well as 3D and 2D impressions. The work refers to the 1960s – a time when form was the subject of an artistâ€s work. Placing this work in a show about extravagance changes its connotations. One starts to think of the luxury of this kind of practice, instead of one that is more obviously socially conscious. The theme of the exhibit dictates how we interpret the piece.

The other work that caught my eye was Suzy Lakeâ€s Real Enhancement. This photograph captures the bottom half of a womanâ€s face, from the tip of her nose to the neck. Her bright red lips are accentuated by the manicured finger resting on her chin. The texture of her skin is that of a woman in the autumn of her life. The title of the work, Real Enhancement, raises a number of questions. Is “real” enhancement possible or is that a paradox? Does it refer to the subjectâ€s lips? Are they enhanced by the makeup or other tools? With Lakeâ€s photograph I deliberated on the subjectâ€s life of luxury and the implication of enhancement.

The summer show at Donald Browne is perfect for anyone who wants to see an eclectic mix of works that come together on the subject of wealth and lavishness.

Galerie Donald Browne, space 528
Various artists
Who’s Paying You?
June 9 – August 25, 2012
www.galeriedonaldbrowne.com

The current show at Les Territoires, Ville Imaginaire, creates its own fantastic world. Noémie da Silva, Marie Dauverné, Mélissa M. Dupuis, Vanessa Lapointe, Payam Mofidi and Sayeh Sarfaraz have brought together their different practices in order to present, as the title suggests, an imaginary town. Les Territoires presents this exhibition as a work in progress, a show, workshop and studio space, implying that this is one incarnation of the groupâ€s collaborative project.

The show itself is intriguing and playful. You enter the gallery and on the far wall and the one to the right is a series of peepholes. Some are small circles, one is long and horizontal and another is torn away pieces of the wall. When you peek into these holes you see magical dioramas, installations of glasses and other objects, photographs and videos too. At the end of the right wall are a number of shelves with little plasticine figures and objects – a teeny-tiny installation that lets your imagination go wild. The second room of the gallery has a single work. On the floor the drawing of a floorplan is covered with a white dust and projected on to that is a stop motion animation video of dismembered figures moving around, seen through a red filter. The artists have created a weird world, not utopian or dystopian but merely different. Their choice of materials (fimo figures, stop motion animation and dioramas) adds a childlike playfulness to the show. Weâ€re brought back to the imagination of our own youth and reminded of how our own minds can create whole universes.

Les Territoires, space 527
Noémie da Silva, Marie Dauverné, Mélissa M. Dupuis, Vanessa Lapointe, Payam Mofidi and Sayeh Sarfaraz
Ville Imaginaire
June 1 – June 23, 2012
www.lesterritoires.org

The world is a colourful place, and artist have a huge colour palette to choose from. But what happens when you limit yourself to yellow, cyan, magenta, and black? This is what Julie Trudel has done in her most recent show, Project CMYK – Phase 2, at Optica. Trudel is part of a long line of artists who work in the abstract, focusing their practice around the nature of colour rather than a specific subject. In this series Trudel uses the four printer inks to explore the nature of colour.

Trudel has painted acrylic, silk screen printing ink and gesso on plywood. Some of the paintings are 35 X 35 cm in square or diamond formation and others are larger circles. In each case the paint forms circular or oval shapes, sometimes centred, sometimes not, but never symmetrical nor covering the entire board. On the square and diamond shaped works the colours are painted over a larger white circle. In these ones the ink is painted into a swirling motion, like a black hole, and the colours blend into one another. We see highlights of various colours, particularly the magenta and yellow and also new colours produced when the inks are mixed together. The larger works are made from what appears to be the blending of colour as the ink drips down. The colours change from outside in, each one slightly differently. Within the ovals are tiny squares of colour. From a distance all you can see is an overall colour (made from the various inks), but close up you the individual pigments in each square.

These glossy yet subtle works are fantastic. They present an exploration of colour based on modern day technologies. Instead of primary colours, Trudel uses printer ink to explore not only how colour works, but also what variations can be made from this simple starting point. It is a striking and beautiful project.

Galerie Optica, space 508
Julie Trudel
Project CMYK – Phase 2
May 12 – June 16 2012
www.optica.ca

The current show at SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art features five artists whose work examines book covers, their design and context. Judging Books By Their Covers is a must see for anyone who is interested in the role of book covers and how they are placed on the shelf. How does the visual arrangement reveal oneâ€s personality? What does it mean to have certain books grouped together? How about paperbacks versus hardcovers?

Judging Books By Their Covers exhibits the work of Marc Joseph Berg, Gayle Johnson, Hans-Peter Feldman, Lorraine Oades and R.B. Kitaj. Bergâ€s large scale photographs of the covers of books – displayed in a store, hanging from a clothesline or alone – are scattered throughout the show. Cowboys, for example, is a still life of The Book of Cowboys by Holling C. Holling, orange with the silhouette of a cowboy on the front, photographed in front of a white background. The photographs, larger than the books themselves, make us think about how books are presented and how it is different to see them side by side, or completely isolated.

Bookshelves, by Hans-Peter Feldman, is a five-panel work of black and white photographs mounted on aluminum Dibond. Seeing what might be the same bookshelf re-arranged and photographed five times makes one think about what is a book collection, how it is organized, and who it belongs to. In these photographs there are books standing upright, stacked on top of one another or leaning diagonally, as well as vinyl records, boxes and various trinkets. In one photograph, the top of the bookshelf has a display of toy boats, while in another there is a mini-Eiffel Tower.

La pièce de resistance, in my opinion, is Lorraine Oadesâ€s work, Painted Theories of Modern Art Series. The series consists of twenty-nine paintings of book covers, or at least of parts of them, never the entire thing but always enough for the viewer to make out what they are. Iris Murdochâ€s Sartre is here, along with Wittgenstein, Howl by Allen Ginsberg, New Yorkâ€s Art World, De Stijl and other classic texts of Modernism. Oades, primarily a video and electronic artist, is here examining the discursive nature of painting.

Judging Books by Their Covers is a fantastic show because of the scope of the artists and the different ways they stimulate us to think about how we not only judge books by their covers, but people for their bookshelves.

SBC Galerie D’Art Contemporain, space 507
Marc Joseph Berg, Gayle Johnson, Hans-Peter Feldman, Lorraine Oades and R.B. Kitaj
Judging Books By Their Covers
April 14 – June 9, 2012
www.sbcgallery.ca/

Usually on entering an exhibition space we expect to find works to look at and consider. This is only partially true of Peter Flemmingâ€s new show, Instrumentation, at Centre des arts actuels Skol. Flemming, who describes himself as a “folk machinery artist”, here exhibits five works that create, project and alter his created electro-mechanical sound. In the first room sit four large pieces, each facing a corner. Made of found objects, the works are all designed to project the sounds that Flemming has created. As you walk around them the volume changes to stress their function. In the back room is the fifth piece. Sitting in the middle of the room like a work station are piano wires, moving arms, machinery and drums kits acting as speakers. On top of the table three desk lamps get brighter then darker, adding a visual dimension. When the lights fade to black we become immersed in the sound, and when they turn back on we are reminded of the visual setting and not just what we are hearing.

In the past few years the public has begun to take more note of sound artists. The 2010 Turner Prize was awarded to Susan Philipszâ€s Lowlands, a sound installation featuring three variants of the same Scottish lament. Sound installation – be it electro-machinery, words, noises or songs – focuses on heightening not only our hearing, but also our sight. In the case of Flemmingâ€s instrumentation, when you first enter the show you try and figure out how the different objects present are making the electro-noise, then the longer you are there the less the how matters and the more you enjoy being silent totally immersed in Flemmingâ€s music, and the way the separate noises resonate with one another. You can just relax and let the sounds wash over you.

Centre des arts actuels Skol, space 314
Peter Flemming
Instrumentation
April 27 – June 2 2012
www.skol.ca