Michael Shenker of the Montreal Gazette visits show
Michael Shenker, Arts & Life Editor at Montreal daily The Gazette, gave some tips on how to publicize Concordia University’s Art Matters festival to the co-producers of the event, Emily Shanahan and Corina Kennedy. A photo of this encounter is in the Photos gallery.
Michael spoke with the Art Matters co-producers at the opening of an art show, Laterna Phantasmagoria, presented by collective member Robert Winters at the Visual Arts Building in January 2006.
Robert's show received curatorial assistance from Leigh Gillam, a Montreal artist and graduate from Concordia University's Fine Arts program, who helped direct the positioning of the pieces in the space and made a selection of drawings for a section of the show. The curatorial task of arranging the show's elements included the challenge of positioning pieces that included photo-based prints as well as drawings. Leigh's work included placing a piece about the artist not existing if his father was killed during the war next to drawings that iincorporated red marks.
Robert's show was prepared as part of his work under the direction of Eric Simon, a visiting professor in Concordia's Studio Arts program. Eric, who presented an overview of his work in a visiting artist's presentation at Concordia in January 2006, felt Robert's book of drawing and painting prepared last year while working with artist François Morelli, was the strongest piece of work in the show.
Eric's shows have included a 1998 solo exhibition in Zurich, Switzerland, of science fiction paintings and a 1999 exhibition in Montreal with David Liss, now director of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. To find out more about Eric Simon, click here::
The Art Matters festival, a celebration of fine arts at the university, kicks off its sixth edition March 3-17, with events on campus and at venues around town, co-ordinated by a team of curators. In 2005, Art Matters was crowned Best Art Exhibit in the Best of Montreal Mirror Readers Poll. For the first time, it placed in the Top Ten Festival category, securing fifth place. To find out more about Art Matters, visit their website by clicking here: Art Matters
On the home page of Art Matters, you can see an illustration by collective member Shawn Kuruneru.
To visit Shawn's website, click here: Shawn’s site
To find out more about The Gazette, click here: Montreal Gazette