Strings Exhibition Thursday April 13 vernissage
The Art Collective’s Strings exhibition has been attracting positive feedback this week, with its work done in collaboration by members of the group as well as examples of individual work to highlight the talents of the artists that work within the collective project.
The show runs until Thursday April 13 in the Visual Arts Building at the corner of René-Lévesque Blvd. and Crescent St. in downtown Montreal.
A vernissage will be held Thursday evening, 6 to 9 p.m., which will feature interactive drawing and colouring of special drawings done by Montreal artist François Morelli, which will be made into a video. There will be breakdancing by collective member Marisa Hoicka, and a performance piece by Cassandra Wittome, a member with classical theatrical training in Toronto.
For Thursday evening’s vernissage, please bring something for people to snack on, if you can. We’ll be setting up starting at 5 as event starts at 6.
There are new images posted in the Photos and Our Work sections of this website.
Our show is featured on the main page of the News@Concordia website, as the top item under Arts and Entertainment:
News@Concordia
This leads to a separate page about our show on News@concordia:
Item about our show
As well, publicity about our show was distributed on the excellent Invisible Cities
e-newsletter which promotes arts events in Montreal. I have included at bottom of this note a copy of the info sent out by Invisible Cities.
Finally, invitations to our show and the vernissage were sent to journalists and editors at the Montreal Gazette, the city’s main English daily.
The blend of individual and collaborative work really works well, thanks to the excellent curating team that put up the show: collective members Jessica Alfonso, Judith Brisson, Angeliki Gketsou, Marisa Hoicka, Joanna Nawarcaj, Sonomi Tanaka and Robert Winters, under the guidance of lead curator Stephanie Reynolds.
Key sections of the main wall were designed by Sonomi, Angeliki, Joanna and Stephanie. The excellent design work for the show invitations was done by Angeliki. Many of the collaborative pieces were selected at a special curating session with Montreal artist Holly King at a special session Feb. 10, while more recent pieces were chosen at a curating session on March 31.
The large-scale piece on the main wall is a collaborative work done on March 14 at the interactive event during Art Matters, at the Halle des vernissages, at the entrance to the future Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery. The symbolic first mark at this interactive day, an Art Matters Special Event, was made by Lynn Beavis, co-ordinator of the gallery. The large-scale piece was started by Sonomi and was worked on extensively at the event by collective members David King and Jarmila Kavena, both founding members of the group. Stephanie also worked on the piece, which was considered very strong when it was viewed after the event by one top Montreal artist.
A copy of our show sign is just below this entry; it includes the names of individuals who worked on the pieces displayed in Strings.
Another highlight of our vernissage is that member Joanna Nawarcaj will be showing the latest issue of Lip zine, a zine that includes work by The Art Collective. Lip zine is the brain child of Alessandra Naccarato and Joanna Nawracaj. It's an independent publication showcasing the poetic, political, and visual work of emerging Montreal artists and activists.
In other developments, collective member Kyla Chevrier and her show at Bain Mathieu in March were described in an article in The Link, titled The Much sought-after female touch:
Story about Kyla Chevrier's show
And if you would like to get involved in the excellent VAV Gallery, location of the collective’s March 7 interactive event during Art Matters, the gallery’s annual meeting is Thursday April 13 at 1230.
Finally, if you happen to be in Calgary in the next 10 days, you might check out a show by Montreal artist Tricia Middleton, who contributed to the success of this year’s Art Matters festival as co-ordinator of Student and Alumni Relations at Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts.
Robert Winters, co-ordinator, The Art Collective
robertwinters@videotron.ca