McCord Museum 2019: Kent Monkman

SHAME AND PREJUDICE: A STORY OF RESILIENCE

Exclusive Quebec showing 

February 8 - May 5, 2019

Kent Monkman is a Canadian artist of Cree and Irish ancestry. This is his second nationally touring solo exhibition that he also curates himself. It re-examines Canadian history, from Confederation to today, as if seen through the eyes of a personage he created - Miss Chief Eagle - that represents his own time-travelling, gender-fluid alter ego. This personage, which appears at the exhibition both in sculptural form, moulded on the artist himself, and as a self portraiture in his paintings, is Monkman’s inventive device to reflect on the 150 years of Canadian history of devastating polices vis-a-vis Indigenous people.  It also honours the resilience of the Indigenous people today.

Monkman uses a number of items from the museum’s permanent collection, placing them next to his own works, to create installations that reflect even stronger on the controversial points in Canadian history.

McCord Museum considers this exhibition as a great opportunity to initiate encounters, dialogue and reconciliation around the topic that concerns all Canadians, all human beings, and forces us to reflect on ourselves.

This exhibition has already toured through Western Canada, the Maritimes and Ontario, and McCord Museum is hosting its only Quebec stop. It is Monkman’s second collaboration with the McCord Museum, where he was artist in residence in 2013. During his residency, he created his monumental Welcome to the Studio as a tribute to Montreal, a painting that McCord Museum acquired in 2014.

Exclusive Quebec showing

After a hugely successful tour through Western Canada, the Maritimes and Ontario, Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience is making its only—and highly anticipated—stop in Quebec at the McCord Museum. “Indigenous cultures are a key component of the McCord Museum. It’s an honour to be hosting this outstanding exhibition,” said Suzanne Sauvage. This is Monkman’s second collaboration with the McCord. He was artist in residence in 2013, when he created the monumental work Welcome to the Studio in tribute to Montreal—a painting that the museum acquired in 2014 thanks, in part, to support from Montrealers.

Click on images to enlarge them.

For more information, visit the McCord Museum website.

True Crime

Centaur Theatre /50th Season

TRUE CRIME

January 8 - 27, 2019

This is a one man show, based on a personal experience of the actor and the writer of the play Torquil Campbell. (You can read more about him here). The play’s twisted narrative about an exceptionally successful, true-life con man was additionally co-created with Crow’s Theatre Artistic Director Chris Abraham, and with Julian Brown.

In his youth, Torquil Campbell was obsessed with true crime reality TV shows. Thanks to his good memory, when in 2009 he read  about Clark Rockefeller having been arrested for kidnapping his own daughter, he recognized him as Christopher Chichester from an old episode of Unsolved Mysteries, where he was wanted in connection with the disappearance of two people. This imposter was born in Germany as Christian Gerhartsreiter, and is currently serving a near-life sentence in a California State prison.

To explain his preoccupation with the criminal, Torquil admits:

"When I saw the pictures of him [Rockefeller] I immediately noticed that we bore a resemblance to each other and I started to realize that a lot of what he had been trying to do for a long time was impersonate someone quite a lot like myself — he was trying to be an effete East Coast preppy WASP! We look alike, we wear the same kind of glasses, we have the same tastes in things … the similarities started to get eerie. And that got me wondering, ‘What would it be like if I tried to become this guy?"

Torquil Campbell plays both characters, himself and the imposter, with a lot of expressive energy, gesticulation, and a rapid change of facial expressions and body language. The differentiation of the two personas is also additionally achieved by the changing of the lights configuration behind the actor. This is a cleaver and quite effective device that also adds to the play’s décor. Yet if you have sensitive eyes, I would advise you to sit away from the stage, to add additional distance to this back stage character lightening signalisation. I was sitting in the second raw and had to look away from the stage during most of the play, as the lights were really bothering my eyes.

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Hover your mouse over images for description and credits.

For more information, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

Centaur Theatre, Legacy Series: Schwartz's

SCHWARTZ’S: THE MUSICAL

Created by Rick Blue and George Bowser

Based on book by Bill Brownstein’s

December 14 -16, 2018

To the theatre goes delight, Centaur brought back its great success success Schwartz’s: the Musical that originally appeared on its stages in 2011. It portrays the famous Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen on St. Laurence street. It is the story of its history as portrayed in the popular Bill Brownstein’s book The Story of Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen about ‘the Main’ (as St. Laurence street was known mainly to the Montreal's English speaking population). The book was later popularised even more when made into a musical by Montreal’s kings of parody, Rick Blue and George Bowser. 

The hearty smoked meat sandwiches offered to their clients at the Schwartz's, became iconic to Montreal as one of its culinary achievements. It attracted not only locals and their friends, but huge number of tourists and even international celebrities, and often a very colourful clientèle.

The musical is a delight to watch. The parody style intermingled with some serious notes, makes this performance very entertaining and informative. A audience will be not only entertained but will also discover the Schwartz's unusual business model and what made them so successful. 

PRODUCTION TEAM

Script, music and lyrics: Rick Blue and George Bowser

Co-Directed: Eda Holmes and Jonathan Patterson

Musical Director: Chris Barillaro

Actors: Chris Barillaro, Rick Blue, George Bowser, Vito DeFilippo, Bruce Dinsmore, Holly Gauthier-Frankel, Dominic Lorange, Stephanie Martin, Gordon Masten and Felicia Shulman

Drummer: Parker Bert

Stage Manager: Melanie St-Jacques

SCHWARTZ’S: THE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Fri. Dec. 14           8PM
Sat. Dec. 15          8PM
Sun. Dec. 16         2PM

SCHWARTZ’S: THE MUSICAL TICKETS
$30      Regular Adult Admission                                           
$25      Subscriber/Senior

$20      Students                                                                     
 

For more information about scheduling and program, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

Salon du livre 2018

Le Salon du livre de Montréal

Montreal Annual Book Show

41st Edition

November 14-19, 2018

Comme des géants 
Maison d'édition jeunesse

This Montreal's annual book faire, always held at Place Bonaventure, is extremely popular with Montrealers, especially with children. Loads of school buses bring children to the show, they crowed various kiosks, look through the books, and ask writers present at the show to sign the books they have just purchased.



I was gifted with a book by Nadine Robert, the editor of the publishing house Comme des géants, and I would like to bring it to your attention. The book Elsi was actually written by the editor herself, and it was skilfully illustrated by Maja Kastelich. Those are just the types of illustrations I remember in my own books when I was a child. It brought back the memories of my childhood and the delight I had to read and leaf through such books and to look at the attractive illustrations which made the book story come alive, bringing me right into the imaginary world created by the author.

The Christmas is fast approaching, so do not hesitate to visit this book show, and to purchase just the right book presents either for your child or any other children you might know and would like to bring some happiness to during the winter holidays.

The show presents a huge amount of books of any kind covering an immense array of subjects. One can find books not only for one's own reading pleasure but also for the friends and family.



Click on images to enlarge them.

You can read more about the show in my other article here.

Visit the Salon du livre  website.
Visit Comme des géants website.

The Children

Centaur Theatre /50th Season

The Children

November 6 - 25, 2018

A 2018 Tony-nominated play

Written by Lucy Kirkwood

Directed by Eda Holmes

With Geordie Johnson, Laurie Paton and Fiona Reid

Centaur Theatre and Canadian Stage Co-production

Quebec Premier

The Children, written by a British playwright Lucy Kirkwood, earned two Tony Award nominations: the Best Play and the Outer Critics Circle Award. It also won the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Play in January 2018. It made its debut in November 2016 at the Royal Court (London, UK). A year later, it opened on Broadway, at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Last month, October 2018, it enjoyed a successful ran at Canadian Stage, the Performing Arts Theatre in Toronto. Now, it is enjoying the Quebec premieres at Montréal’s Centaur Theatre.

The play examines the forefront issues we now all face as a collective humanity – the safety of our energy sources, the toxic and nauseous pollution of our living environment, and the sense of responsibility, or the lack of it, as how to remedy the consequences of our mistakes.

Following a nuclear disaster in the plant where they used to work, two British nuclear engineers, a husband and wife, live just outside of the exclusion zone, near a seaside, where they moved after the accident. At their retirement age, when they should have enjoyed their lives after having contributed their long careers to the society, they are now facing not only the re-examination of their relationship but also consequences of their mistakes, both personal and professional. This is triggered by an unexpected visit of a former colleague whom they have not seen in 38 years. What at first appear as a simple reminiscing, escalates into an existential and moral dilemma with inevitable, grave and irreversible consequences to all three characters.

I highly recommend this play. It has an intricate plot where the real meaning revealed only at the end. The play raises important issues that could affect all of us, and suggest we are all responsible for our actions within our society. Though at first it appears to be light-hearted, it is in reality quite multifaceted. In addition, the actors’ performance is excellent.

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Set & Costume Designer Eo Sharp

Lighting Designer Bonnie Beecher

Sound Designer John Gzowski Assistant Director Christine Horne

Assistant Sound Designer Maddie Bautista

Stage Manager Maria Popoff

Apprentice Stage Manager Meghan Froebelius

Click on images to enlarge them.

Hover your mouse over images for description and credits.

For more information, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

Sunday Chat-Up:

Sunday November 11, 2018 at 12:30pm in the Gallery.

Join Gazette Editor-in-Chief, Lucinda Chodan, in conversation with Colleen Thorpe, Director of Sustainability Consulting at Equiterre. Together they will discuss possible solutions that can be done individually and collectively, to improve the fate of the planet.

Free public event with refreshments provided by Bonaparte Restaurant.

Post-Show Talkbacks:

Thursday November 15 and Sunday November 18.

Audience members are invited to stay after the performances for a Q&A with select members of the cast.

Saturday Salon:

Saturday November 24 after the matinée performance, at 3:30pm in the Gallery.

Join Eda Holmes, Centaur’s Artistic and Executive Director and also The Children Director, for an informal conversation about The Children, Season 50, and what is coming up at Centaur.

Château Ramezay : War Flowers

War Flowers - Fleurs D'ARMES

A Traveling Art Exhibition

October 24, 2019 - March 31, 2019

Presently at Château Ramezay in Montreal, Fleurs D'ARMES is an innovative multisensory exhibition exploring human nature in the landscape of war through floriography, sculpture and scents. It draws portraits and examines experiences of ten Canadians directly involved in the First World War.

During the First World War (1914-18) Canadian soldier Lieutenant-Colonel George Stephen Cantlie, a Montrealer, picked flowers from the fields and gardens of war-torn Europe, pressing and drying them within a book. Every day, he sent one flower home, along with a short, affectionate note to one of his children, including his one-year-old baby daughter Celia back home in Montreal, so that, as she grew up, she would have something to remember him by in the event he didn’t survive that war.

The exhibition is inspired by the pressed flowers picked by soldier George Stephen Cantlie in the gardens, fields and hedges of war-torn Europe and sent home to Montreal to his baby daughter, « wee Celia », as he called her.

These century-old flowers, some of them on display with the original letters, are used as floriography, a Victorian method of communicating meaning and emotion through flowers, to tell the story of human nature in the landscape of war. Each flower represents emotions associated with such attributes as “devotion”, “solitude”, “familial love”, “grace”, “innocence”, “memory” and others.

There are 10 stations at the exhibition, about Canadians at the World War One The war is portrayed through personal stories of John McCrae, Georges Vanier, Elsie Reford, Jean Brillant, Talbot Papineau, A.Y. Jackson, Percival Molson, Julia Drummond, Edward Savage and George Stephen Cantlie, offer diverse perspectives on the Canadian contribution to the war ending efforts.

For each station, optical crystal sculptures created by award-winning Toronto-based artist Mark Raynes Roberts portray scenes that illustrate different aspects of human nature, while scents at each station developed by Magog, Quebec, olfactory specialist and perfumer Alexandra Bachand evoke memory.

Visit the War Flowers website that complements the exhibition and features the profiles of artists who created various show elements. It explains the behind-the-scenes access design process.

For more information about the exhibition and other activities, visit the Château Ramezay website.

WAR FLOWERS - The team behind the WAR Flowers touring art exhibition

MAC 2018: Françoise Sullivan

Françoise Sullivan
Retrospective of Her Career

October 20, 2018 - January 20, 2019

The Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art - Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), is presenting a retrospective of a leading figure of Québec’s avant-garde and signatory of the Refus global manifesto: Françoise Sullivan.

The Françoise Sullivan exhibition celebrates the artist’s wide-ranging artistic approaches with an impressive selection of works and archival pieces representing milestones from the artist’s career and celebrating Sullivan’s development from the 1940s to the present day.

A prominent figure in the history of Québec art, Sullivan began her career in the 1940s as a member of the emerging Automatist movement, and she never ceased reinventing herself. This major MAC retrospective is showcasing her wide-ranging, prolific artistic career that has left an important mark on contemporary art in Canada. Some fifty works are shown, including paintings, sculptures, and archival documentation, accompanied by a special program of unique performances.

“Already an accomplished painter, dancer and choreographer seventy years ago, Françoise Sullivan is now considered Québec’s first multidisciplinary artist,” notes John Zeppetelli, Director and Chief Curator of the MAC.

Exploring the sources of human nature

Françoise Sullivan’s involvement with the Automatists marked a watershed moment in the artist’s life and Québec art history. Yet her contribution to modern Québec runs much deeper. Over the course of a prolific career, Sullivan has explored the sources of human nature, posing a number of aesthetic questions that brought her into the fold of multiple avant-garde movements in Québec art. In the words of Mark Lanctôt, Curator at the MAC, Sullivan spent her career “searching for new ways of both being of her time and expressing a timeless interiority, a new universalism driven by the desire to reach beyond herself.”
 

Performances at the MAC

In addition to the artworks on display, the MAC will present a cycle of performances representative of Françoise Sullivan’s important work as a choreographer and contemporary dancer. To integrate these performances in the exhibition, the Museum commissioned performing artists to present new works in a specially designed performance space. Invited artists include Dana Michel (associate artist at Par B.L.eux), The Two Gullivers (Flutura & Besnik Haxhillari), Dorian Nuskind-Oder, Simon Grenier-Poirier, Catherine Lavoie-Marcus and Maryse Larivière. Performances will be presented beginning on October 23. The performance schedule is available on the MAC website: https://macm.org/en/activities/performances/

Françoise Sullivan Biography

Born in Montreal in 1923, Françoise Sullivan studied at Montreal’s École des beaux-arts in the 1940s, during which time she and a circle of artist friends headed by Paul-Émile Borduas established the movement known as “Les Automatistes.” A co-signatory of the group’s Refus global manifesto, she contributed a seminal essay on contemporary dance, “La Danse et l’espoir” (Dance and Hope). An accomplished painter, dancer and choreographer, she spent the years from 1945 to 1947 in New York studying modern dance under Franziska Boas, among others. Shortly after returning to Montreal, she created Danse dans la neige (Dance in the Snow) (1948), which marked a defining moment in her artistic career. In the 1960s, she turned her attention to sculpture, working notably with steel and Plexiglas. She made her first trips to Greece and Italy in the 1970s, and, as a member of the Véhicule Art artist-run centre, Sullivan experimented with performative and “immaterial” approaches associated with conceptual art. The 1980s marked a return to painting, with matierist tondos and later figurative works inspired by ancient mythology. During the second half of the 1990s, she embarked on a lengthy exploration of abstract painting, a passion she continues to pursue today.

Françoise Sullivan taught at Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts from 1977 to 2009. Her works have been shown in Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Japan. She has received the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas and the Order of Canada and was named a knight of the Order of Québec. Retrospectives of her work have been mounted by the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. In 2005, Françoise Sullivan won the Governor General’s Award in the Visual and Media Arts, and in 2008, the Gershon Iskowitz Prize.

 Catalogue 

For the Françoise Sullivan retrospective, the MAC will publish a substantial catalogue (288 pages, 180 illustrations), featuring essays by Mark Lanctôt, exhibition curator, Vincent Bonin, Ray Ellenwood and Noémie Solomon. An illustrated chronology, written by Chantal Charbonneau, completes the publication. The catalogue is available for $39.95 at the MAC Boutique.

The Françoise Sullivan retrospective will embark on a multi-city Canadian tour organized in collaboration with two Ontario museums: the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, and the Art Gallery of Windsor. It will then be shown in the Musée régional de Rimouski (Québec) and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (British Columbia). This travelling exhibition is funded in part by the Government of Canada.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All images in this article:  Photo © Nadia Slejskova

For more information about MAC, visit the museum's website.

 

Also see my article about Françoise Sullivan exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine arts that opened in November 2023 and celebrated her 100th birthday here.