Radar 2025 – National Edition September 11- October 16
La Rentrée, a long-standing tradition at the Belgo Building, which takes place at the beginning of September, is always a moment of celebration for both the public and the galleries. Each year, exhibition spaces transform into cultural hubs, showcasing some of their most talented artists and marking the start of a vibrant new season. The evening is bustling and eclectic, drawing Montreal’s finest and offering the perfect opportunity to see and be seen. Participating galleries and studios are primarily located between the third and fifth floors. As visitors move from floor to floor, they encounter skilled, original works presented within spaces that offer a unique atmosphere. La Rentrée 2025 lived up to all expectations, yet it was the exhibition at Galerie Hughes Charbonneau that truly captured my interest. Titled Radar, it ran from September 11 to October 5, and showcased the works of 11 carefully selected Canadian artists.
For Hughes Charbonneau, Radar has become a tradition, a method of working, and a way to highlight pieces that emerge directly from artists’ studios. A few years ago, driven by a desire to discover new artists, the gallery team began conducting weekly studio visits, meeting artists they might not have encountered otherwise. From these visits, a selection of standout talents is made, and Radar has since evolved into the gallery’s annual exhibition, showcasing the team’s coup de cœur. I found myself lingering longer than anticipated, absorbed in the visual dialogue and the energy radiating from the works throughout the gallery. With its compelling curation and subtle, unspoken theme, each piece seemed to resonate with ideas of transformation, inviting reflection on both material and spiritual change.
The exhibition included several works by Inuit and First Nation artists who strive to be recognized as contemporary creators while remaining deeply rooted in their cultural traditions. Historically, within Inuit culture, shamans served as mediators between the human, animal, and spirit worlds. In Inuit spirituality, transformation, also referred to as transfiguration, represented a sacred metamorphosis involving the spirit of a human or an animal changing body or species to accomplish specific tasks such as hunting, travelling, or fulfilling spiritual missions. A central concept in their cosmology and worldview, these transfigurations were viewed as natural and essential for survival.
Traditional Inuit art is closely tied to these spiritual practices and often depicts visual expressions of this concept. The idea of visual metamorphosis became particularly prevalent in Inuit art around the 1950s, following the establishment of northern art cooperatives. Many of those spiritual practices were disrupted or suppressed during the 19th and 20th centuries through colonization, Christian missions, and residential schools, which discouraged Indigenous spirituality. However, today the concepts and symbols of transfiguration remain deeply alive in Inuit culture, especially through art. The theme of shamanic journeys and survival continues to appear in the works of younger artists interpreting the stories passed down by their elders.
1. Palaya Qiatsuq, Transforming Shaman, 2024
Serpentinite, marbre et os
39,4 x 21,6 x 9 cm (15,5” x 8,5” x 3,5”)
2. Saimaiyu Akesuk, Patricia, Felicia, Karen, Everyone Has 3 Sides, 2021
Crayon de couleur sur papier
56 x 76 cm (22” x 30)
Artist Pitsiulaq Qimirpik has distinguished himself by blending elements of pop culture with traditional carving. Born in 1986, Qimirpik belongs to a rising generation of Inuit artists forging a contemporary aesthetic, one that positions their work firmly within the broader contemporary dialogue while remaining rooted in ancestral practices, knowledge, and storytelling.
3. Pitsiulaq Qimirpiq, Walrus Riding Spirits, 2025
Serpentinite, corne et acrylique
17,8 x 16,5 x 17,8 cm (7” x 6,5” x 7”)
Themes of shamanistic metamorphosis, healing, and ritual practices appear across traditional cultures worldwide. These dynamic and intricate ceremonies are powerfully embodied in Delali Cofie’s conceptual photographic works, where the role of costume in rituals of self-transformation and healing becomes central. Born in Ghana and raised in West Africa, the Toronto-based artist creates work deeply infused, consciously or not, with narratives of shamanistic performances, seemingly drawing from Okomfo rituals and the beliefs and traditions of Vodun. In these sacred practices, spiritual leaders don elaborate ceremonial garments to enter elevated states of consciousness, connect with deities, and confront malevolent spirits. Cofie’s photographs echo these roles, with figures and settings acting as doorways between worlds, while the ceremonial costumes and botanicals evoke processes of spiritual and emotional restoration, reflecting the performative and sacred dimensions of initiation and transfiguration.
4: Delali Cofie, Untitled (Green Wall), 2024
Impression pigment qualité d’archives sur papier Epson legacy baryta
91,4 x 72,4 (36” x 28,5”)
Édition 5
When considering the concept of transformation in the material world, one can look to physical dissolution of form, where a material’s appearance or state is altered through processes such as melting, boiling, or sublimation. Transformation can also refer to a change of shape, where bending, tearing, cutting, or hammering reshapes the object while the material itself remains the same. This idea of shape shifting comes alive in the work of Majorie Labrèque-Lepage and Xénia Lucie Laffely. Materials traditionally used in the fashion industry are reinvented, elevated, and altered in unpredictable ways and occupying a mutated space that exists between painting, textile, and sculpture. Textiles, vinyl, glitter, and thread are manipulated, layered, and stitched into compositions that suggest both structure and fluidity. Much like in Inuit transfiguration art, human, animal, vegetal, or hybrid figures merge, creating amorphous forms that blur boundaries between representation and abstraction. The works invite viewers to engage with the surprising possibilities that arise when materials are pushed beyond their conventional uses.
Majorie Labrèque-Lepage, Lion / Flashy Beast, 2025
Piqué de satin de polyester, acrylique, vinyl, kodel, paillettes, perles, velours, bourrure de dacron déchiqueté
68,6 x 132,1 x 26,7 cm (27” x 52” x 10,5”)
Xénia Lucie Laffely, Halloween Marzipan (Les fruits de Lagos, Les fantômes d’halloween, Maggie et le pied de Clare), 2024
Collage de textiles imprimés, matelassés et brodés
165 x 101,6 cm (65” x 40”)
Moving through the exhibition, I was reminded that transformation is a theme that bridges both the material and spiritual realms. It is a concept that transcends time and space, woven into cultural identity, religious practice, and artistic expression. The idea of Transfiguration embodies resilience, self-discovery, and healing, offering a powerful lens through which to contemplate personal growth and the shared challenges of the human experience. Ultimately, the exhibition revealed the transformative power of art itself, its ability to transmute experience into tangible, and to awaken new ways of seeing, feeling, and understanding our world.