Friday, May 10, 2019

CCA 2019: Our Happy Life

Photo by Stefano Graziani, ”Rankings of Happiness 2015–2017”
World Happiness Report 2018. © CCA

Architecture and Well-Being
in the Age of Emotional Capitalism

8 May - 13 October, 2019

Can architecture contribute to general human happiness? Do sleek building designs combined with the equally sleek interior designs and landscaping alter a person’s mood from negative to positive? Does the comfort of plush carpets and bright lights have the power to alter your mood and make you happy?

Can the sense of grounding, freedom, peace, and even unconditional love one feels when being in nature be labelled as a hedonistic pleasure, as if it were something unnatural, superfluous, not really a basic human need to be connected to the source of all that is alive on Earth?

Can an architect or an urban designer create a sense of pleasure and deep satisfaction that has a power to border on a spiritual experience purely by artificial, artistic, and commercially strategic means?

To what an extend a human being becomes a commodity to be studied intensely with surveys and computer algorithms in order to determine how to structure the living environments in such a controlled way as to provide an illusion of a well being while constructing a sustainable, commercially profitable venue?

This new Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA) exhibition is offering its visitors to ask just these types of questions and seek personal answers.

Curator: Francesco Garutti
Curatorial team: Irene Chin, Jacqueline Meyer
Visual identity and design: OK-RM, London 
Exhibition design: Bernard Dubois, Brussels 
Design development: Sébastien Larivière, Anh Truong

To find more about this exhibition and other projects exhibitions, visit the CCA website.

Friday, May 03, 2019

MMFA 2019: Avant-garde Montrealers


Jewellery, Glass and Ceramics as Envisioned by Gallerists Jocelyne Gobeil, Elena Lee and Barbara Silverberg

April 30, 2019 - March 2020

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) dicates its Design Lab to three Quebec former gallery owners whose expertise ensured that glass, ceramics and jewellery became recognized fully as artistic disciplines. Avant-garde Montrealers: Jewellery, Glass and Ceramics as Envisioned by Jocelyne Gobeil, Elena Lee and Barbara Silverberg pays tribute to these women and their resolutely contemporary and practices.

Bringing together 60 of the works – which the Museum now boasts in its collection – Avant-garde Montrealers attests to the vast creative potential of jewellery, glass and ceramics.

The gifts of works from these galleries reveal the exemplary role played by Gobeil, Lee and Silverberg as true Canadian pioneers. The Louise and Laurette D’Amours bequest from the Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection and the Anna and Joe Mendel Collection respectively showcase Canadian glass art from 1970 to 2015, and Canadian and international glass art from 1962 to 2008. The gift of Barbara and Philip Silverberg highlights the oeuvre of American and Canadian ceramicists, especially of the 1980s and 1990s. The pieces from the personal collection of the late Jocelyne Gobeil were fashioned by artists who made their mark on the history of contemporary jewellery during the same period. The confluence and synergy of the works in this exhibition add to the depth and diversity of the Museum’s decorative arts and design collection, a unique holding in North America.
  

Jocelyne Gobeil, Elena Lee and Barbara Silverberg opened their galleries in a period when these changing fields were shifting focus from utilitarian and decorative objects to sculptural and conceptual works of art. These gallery owners fostered the dissemination and promotion of such creations by solo and group exhibition programming, by presenting them at artistic shows, promoting them in publications, as well as pursuit of other avenues. The women convinced the artistic milieu and a wider public of such works relevance and endurance.

Located near the Museum, their galleries took advantage of the high traffic on Sherbrooke Street and the close by presence of other art galleries. 


Click on images to enlarge them.
Hover you mouse over images for description  and credits.

Galerie Elena Lee (1976-2017) specialized in Canadian contemporary glass art. Representing new and established artists alike, the gallery showcased traditional blown-glass works as well as more complex and sculptural art that exploits the many facets of glass and its potential for combining with other materials – works that put Canadian glass art on the international stage.

Galerie Jocelyne Gobeil (1987-1999) sought to give jewellery its due credit as wearable works of art. Jocelyne Gobeil primarily represented Quebec artists but also featured American and European creations to raise the profile of international jewellery. Renowned creators expressed their reflections on jewellery with novel and experimental pieces made in a wide array of materials that effected undeniably powerful statements.

Galerie Barbara Silverberg Contemporary Ceramics (1985-1998) started out showcasing the conceptual approaches of Quebec artists and then expanded into works from the United States as well as other parts of Canada, including representatives of the Regina Clay movement. The versatility of this art form was exploited to the fullest by emerging artists and ceramicists celebrated across Canada and around the world. Materiality, plasticity, emotional expression, and creative inspirations together contributed to the great diversity of the artworks.

Exhibition Location

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Design Lab, Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion – Level 2
Until end of June 2019, this exhibition can be accessed via the 3410 Du Musée Avenue entrance only. Tickets must be purchased at the Lobby of the Jean-Noël Desmara

For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.

Thursday, May 02, 2019

McCord Museum Reinvented


New Montreal Museum

April 30, 2019

McCord Museum, located in the heart of Montreal, announced major re-structuring and construction of new museum extensions on its present site. While preserving its Sherbrooke and Victoria Streets façades, it will expand upwards from the present historical McCord Museum building. It will also overflow into the adjacent Victoria Street that runs along the west side of the museum, as well as southwards into the lot that houses the former Caveau restaurant on President Kennedy Avenue. The combined area of these sites will enable the museum to meet its needs for additional space.




Working closely with the City of Montreal that granted the right to build on Victoria Street, the Museum selected the site after conducting a feasibility study. The new building will house under the same roof three recently merged museums: McCord Museum, Stewart Museum and Fashion Museum. Instead of the present 1%, this will allow to display 4-5% of items from the combined permanent collection consisting of 1.4 million artifacts. In addition, the Museum wishes to change its name. The preliminary name proposed is Montréalais.


The new museum will triple the space and will double the number of visitors per year from the current 300,000 to 600,000. It will also triple its educational space and will allow for a far greater number of school group visits, as presently McCord Museum is unable to satisfy all school trip requests.

The project is expected to cost $180 million. It is projected that 1/3 of the cost will be covered by the Federal Government, 1/3 by the Provincial Government, and the remaining 1/3 by private donations.


New museum to receive historic donation

The McCord Stewart Museum also announced that La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso had pledged to donate $15 million towards this project. It is the largest single private monetary donation to a Quebec museum in over 30 years. In 1987, the J.W. McConnell Foundation donated $50 million to the McCord Museum for its expansion and the creation of an endowment to preserve its collection.

Madam Emmanuelle Gattuso, Vice President, Public Affairs of Gattuso Inc. food company founded by her parents, stated:
"Although I have lived in Toronto for many years, I am still a Montrealer at heart. This donation is in memory of my parents, Lina and Pasquale Gattuso, Montrealers of Italian origin who chose this city to raise their family and start a food business that still bears their name and has thrived across the country since 1936. It is my hope that this new museum will break ground very soon and that my donation will encourage the various levels of government, Montrealers and ex-Montrealers to mobilize for this magnificent project that will enrich Montreal’s cultural life."

All pictures of the new museum in this article are only preliminary concepts. McCord Museum will be launching soon an architectural competition for the best new museum design.

McCord museum will be closed during the construction works. Visit the museum now to be able to compare it later to the all new museum.




Click on images to enlarge them.
All photos by DMA, courtesy @ McCord Museum

For more information on current exhibitions, visit the McCord Museum website.