1700 La Poste - Carol Wainio

CAROL WANIO

Réenchantement 

October 13, 2023 - January 21, 2024

As part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, the Montreal's gallery 1700 La Poste presents an exhibition dedicated to the Canadian artist Carol Wainio.

The exhibition Reenchantment highlights paintings and drawings primarily created in recent years. They explore the folktales and fables that populate our collective memory and testify to the persistence and resonance of stories through time. Linked to both grand and small narratives, they depict the threats facing future generations and evoke the hope for renewal.

For inspiration and for some of her works’ main themes, the artist used images from her own collection of old post cards many if which were based on fables. She reinterprets and reconstructs the images and the fables into her own artistic visual narrative. For instance, her painting The Fall (2015 / Acrylic on canvas) - see the photo just below this paragraph – is based on the fable from the oral French tradition Le Petit Poucet that was re-transcribed by Charles Perrault in 1697, see Wikipedia. Below the photo of her painting, there is the image of the postcard she used for that painting, at the bottom-middle of the photo.

The gallery's owner Ms. ISABELLE DE MEVIUS stated this in the catalogue that accompanies this exhibition:

 "The paintings of Carol Wainio, whose inspiration is nourished by the breath of centuries of art history, offers us a pictorial language of rare beauty and a style as original as it is inventive, which escapes the criteria of established recognitions. In the same painting, the artist introduces various elements in the form of collages of images of different styles. The effect of observing a painting within a painting then establishes a tension between the subjects. The motifs are treated like a puzzle of images which can be explained by a dialectic similar to that of a dream."

About the Artist

Carol Wainio was born in Sarnia, Ontario in 1955 to Finnish immigrants and grew up in Waterloo, Ontario. Since 1980, she has lived and worked in Montréal, Ottawa, and other places. She developed an early interest in visual art through her father and pursued studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax (1976) and the University of Toronto (1978–1979) before earning an MFA from Concordia University, Montréal, in 1985. There, she worked with Guido Molinari and undertook additional studies in the history of ideas, developing a painting practice that draws on interests in history, narrative, and broader visual culture—brought together in a discursive, visceral approach, where figures from past and present, high art and vernacular forms of expression, engage in shifting, layered grounds. Her work has been described as visually dense, conceptually full, and marked by a desire to use painting as a means to consider representation itself as well as real world issues.

Wainio’s work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Art Gallery of Ontario, and many other museums and public galleries across Canada. Her paintings are part of major Canadian museum collections as well as corporate and private collections. Wainio is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2014). She is currently represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, and Trépanier Baer Gallery, Calgary.

In the three photos below, Carol Wainio is presenting her paintings to journalists at a Press Conference on October 6, 2023, held at 1700 La Post gallery. 

1700 La Poste

1700 La Poste is an exhibition centre for contemporary art dedicated to supporting and disseminating the work of visual artists through the production of exhibitions, publications, documentary films and conferences.  It is located in a heritage building at 1700 Rue Notre-Dame West, Montreal. It was built in 1913 to house Postal Station F. A century later, it was entirely redesigned and restored to reflect the singular and audacious vision of its owner, Isabelle de Mévius, and Luc Laporte, one of Montreal’s most significant architects. For the past ten years, Isabelle de Mévius has contributed to the promotion of artists from here and elsewhere through her patronage and passion for the arts.

In a photo just below, Isabelle de Mévius is being interviewed by the journalist in front of Carol Wainio's painting.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For this article's dedicated internet address, click on the title above the very first photo.

For more information, visit the 1700 La Poste website.

The admission to the exhibition if free of charge.

MMFA 2023: Marisol

MARISOL: A RETROSPECTIVE

The world premiere

October 7, 2023 - January 21, 2024

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) in collaboration with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum is presenting an exhibition  devoted to Marisol (Venezuelan and American, born in France, 1930–2016). This exhibition is drawn largely on the collection of artworks Marisol kept in her personal possession and left to the Buffalo AKG upon her death. This generous and transformative bequest offers a comprehensive survey of her vast artistic career that span over nearly sixty years.

Although her unique sculptures were associated with the Pop Art movement of the 1960s and she had been defined as the female artist of her generation, Marisol's work remains little known today. By examining and contextualizing her work over her long artistic career, this retrospective offers an opportunity to appreciate a full artistic significance and complexity of this iconic artist. It brings together more than 250 works and documents attesting to the richness of Marisol's unique artistic journey over the decades.

Organized chronologically and thematically, the exhibition begins with Marisol’s emergence as an artist in the 1950s and her early work in sculpture along with a number of previously unpublished drawings. The retrospective then sheds light on her work from the 1960s, when her totemic portraits associated with Pop Art established her as a major artistic figure of her generation.

She uses self-portraiture by incorporating casts of her face, mouth, hands and other body parts into her sculptures. The iconic works from this period include her masterpiece The Party (1965-1966), an assemblage of 15 life-size, free-standing figures, all bearing Marisol’s facial features. Also on display are Baby Girl (1963) and Baby Boy (1962-1963), two sculptures that addressed Cold War concerns as well as femininity and motherhood.

From the 1970s on, the artist’s work is marked by her commitment to issues such as environmental precocity, social justice, feminism and war. While Marisol’s work may not have found wide critical success at the time, it still speaks to several of the most pressing issues of today.

The artist’s figurative drawings from the 1970s point to the relationship to her sculptural self-portraits, suggesting new biographical as well as feminist approaches to Marisol’s self positioning and self presentation. Other sections of the exhibition present documentation of costumes and sets designed by Marisol for some of the leading dance companies of the late 20th century, including the Louis Falco Dance Company and the Martha Graham Dance Company.

In addition to drawing extensively on the Buffalo AKG’s collection of works by Marisol, personally bequeathed to the museum upon her death, the retrospective also features loans of major works such institutions like Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

After its presentation in Montreal, Marisol: A Retrospective will travel to the Toledo Museum of Art (March to June 2024), the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (July 2024 to January 2025), and the Dallas Museum of Art (February to July 2025).

Marisol: A Retrospective iexhibition s organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and curated by Cathleen Chaffee, Charles Balbach Chief Curator. Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Chief Curator of the MMFA, is the curator of the Montreal presentation, in collaboration with Alexandrine Théorêt, Assistant Curator of International Modern and Contemporary Art of the MMFA.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For this article's dedicated internet address, click on the title above the very first photo.

Visit the the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your ticket online.

MEM Inauguration 2023

MEM – Center of Montreal Memories

September 28, 2023

The City of Montreal inaugurated the brand new MEM – Center des memories montrealaises, a museum dedicated to Montreal.

The new MEM continues the activities of the Montreal History Center (CHM) in an entirely new building in the heart of the Montreal's Quartier des spectacles, at the corner of Saint-Laurent Boulevard and Sainte-Catherine Street with a new address 1210 Blvd Saint-Laurent.

MEM's new 21,603 ft2 (2,007 m2) space highlights the riches and unique character of Montreal of yesterday and today. It preserves and displays many communities' stories that made it possible to write the great history of the city. Those individual stories preserved by the Montreal's many various communities were transformed by the museum along with the direct Montreal's inhabitants collaboration into audio and visual presentations. Visitors will discover previously untold stories, surprising testimonies, emblematic artifacts and everyday objects used in the past.

The MEM is inaugurating its new space in which the visitors will be able to find:

• Free public spaces which allow the discovery or rediscovery of the city's identity elements;
• A temporary exhibition: Détours - Urban encounters, produced in collaboration with URBANIA;
• A temporary (displayed for 3 months) citizen exhibition: Celebrating Le Chaînon: 90 years of dedication to women, created with the Le Chaînon Foundation;
• A cabaret offering a varied program;
• A boutique café specializing in the sale of products made in Montreal;
• Cultural activities, some of which take place outside the walls, such as citizen bicycles and the Dialogue with Chinatown exhibition;
• Educational activities for young people of all ages;
• Original and contemporary rental spaces;
• Spectacular views of the city.

The permanent Montreal exhibition will be inaugurated at a later date. It will explore the city's multiple identities through the eyes and words of its citizens, while highlighting Montreal's diversity.

Unusual spaces and rich programming

The MEM's public spaces are directly inspired by the nomenclature of everyday urban places, with among others a "public square", a "terrace", an "alley" and a "belvedere" with a spectacular view of the Esplanade Tranquille. Accessible free of charge, starting on October 6, 2023 and according to MEM opening hours, they will welcome all visitors.

However, the upcoming permanent exhibitions will require the purchase of a ticket.

The MEM is aimed at the entire Montreal population interested in discovering Montreal from various angles. The MEM's cultural programming celebrates the city, citizen participation and current events, while retaining a human character. Educational programs will be offered to primary and secondary school students to develop their sensitivity to openness and diversity and equip them to become curious about their city, its issues and its history. Tourists and other people passing through the metropolis will also be able to discover all in one place several identity features specific to Montreal.

A work of public art

Created by the artist Raphaëlle de Groot at the end of a participatory process that involved more than 350 people, the sculptural work inaugurated at the MEM, The constellations of the hippocampus (See two photos just above), is inspired by the functioning of memory. Its form evokes the mission of the museum as an organ contributing to a circuit of memory connected to the city and the people who inhabit it. It is installed in the MEM Cabaret and will be the subject of mediation activities in the years to come. As a part of the municipal public art collection, the installation was created with financial support from the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal, as part of the Montreal Cultural Development Agreement.

MEM is an accessible and inclusive museum.

The spaces and contents of the MEM were developed with citizen accessibility and inclusion committees in order to allow as many people as possible to experience the museum.

MEM staff are trained to welcome all visitors, according to their specific needs.

Quotes

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante:

“I am very proud to inaugurate the MEM – Montreal Memories Centre, which will offer the population and visitors an exceptional showcase to tell the history of the metropolis, in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles. Montreal is a city rich in its diversity, its excitement and its inhabitants, who directly contributed to the development of the project. It is a museum that will celebrate our history and that will always remain connected to the aspirations of the population.”

Ericka Alneus, the head of culture and heritage within the executive committee:

“It is with pleasure that I welcome this brand new addition to Montreal’s museums, which will quickly become an emblematic place in our metropolis. The MEM is a museum and civic space that celebrates Montrealers of yesterday and today by highlighting memories and testimonies. The institution collaborates with multiple passionate and committed citizen voices, with the aim of developing a cultural project reflecting the diverse realities of Montreal. The beauty of the place and the richness of the exhibitions will undoubtedly charm those who live in the city as much as the tourists and visitors who pass through.” 

 

To discover MEM and its programming click here. 

Click on Images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For this article's dedicated internet address, click on the title above the very first photo.