Art lover's delight this fall
Concordia’s art galleries will offer an eclectic mix of media, themes and ideas this fall. Art lovers can expect a bold and adventurous variety of works.
From September 7 to October 8, the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery will present Jesper Just: Nomad in One’s Own Mind, the Danish artist’s first solo exhibition in Canada. It is presented in collaboration with the 12th Mois de la Photo à Montréal, a biennial photography festival.
The theme of this year’s festival is Lucidity: Inward Views, in which photography is viewed “as an introspective process. Jesper Just’s work fits that thematic very well; it is very inward looking, creating narratives with enigmatic emotional relationships,” says gallery director Michèle Thériault.
Curator Anne-Marie Ninacs had proposed several artists for the gallery, but in the end, Thériault says Just was the right choice.
“We are extremely happy to have Jesper Just as an artist for our gallery. He is a film and video artist of international stature, and his work is very rigorous. It raises all kinds of questions about video, narrative and emotions.”
Just will host a tour of the show on September 14 at 5 p.m., along with Ninacs. The Ellen Gallery is located in the J.W. McConnell Library Building (1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.).
Media Gallery, Department of Communication Studies
The Media Gallery at the Department of Communication Studies will present Vidoodles: Intimate Cinema, an exhibition by Toronto experimental filmmaker Midi Onodera, from September 15 to December 9.
The title combines the words video and doodles. “Like a doodle, the videos are very short. She describes them as miniature cinema — intimate, temporal, and spontaneous,” says co-curator and Communication Studies professor Matt Soar.
“The videos are meant as intimate, unconscious expressions,” Onodera said in an interview last week. “Most of them concentrate on everyday activities. They are intended to help people see the world from a different perspective.”
The exhibition will be composed of two works: Tabletop Viewables, which will be a multiscreen miniature cinema installation, and Movie of the Week, which will be presented on an interactive touch screen. The latter is the result of Onodera’s undertaking to produce one video every week for a year.
Onodera will attend the vernissage on September 15 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., and will give a lecture to Concordia art students the following day. The Media Gallery is located in Room CJ-1.419, Communication Studies and Journalism Building (7141 Sherbrooke St. W.) on Loyola Campus.
FOFA Gallery
The greatest variety of offerings this fall will be at Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts (FOFA) Gallery, in the Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (EV Building, 1515 Ste-Catherine St. W.).
Anima, from September 6 to October 7, will present works from a number of alumni: Ana Mendieta, Caro Caron, Karilee Fuglem, Philomène Longpré, Elena Willis, Jason Sanchez and curator Christine Redfern. Films from the late Cuban-American feminist artist Ana Mendieta will be screened on September 24, along with the launch of a graphic novel, Who Is Ana Mendieta? by alumnae Christine Redfern and Caro Caron.
In her biography, Fuglem’s work is described as speaking “a subterranean language of light, movement and visceral sensation,” and Longpré explores the intricate interactions between the physical and virtual worlds with striking colourful images full of movement. The collaboration of photographers Elena Willis and Jason Sanchez will also run until October 7.
Memorial for a Stranger is an ongoing FOFA project by MFA (Fibres) student Andréanne Godin. Working in the York Corridor vitrines, Godin uses watercolour pencils to create a landscape reminiscent of her hometown. The work speaks to loss and memory in many ways, from the pencil-box entrusted to her by its previous and deceased owner, to the town fraught with displacement and turmoil due to mining projects in the area.
Cellular Memorabilia, by Tagny Duff, Communication Studies professor and fine arts PhD candidate, will be at FOFA from October 17 to November 11. It will feature three works which “utilize the tools and practices of tissue culture engineering to both reflect upon, while creating, viral ‘specimens.’”
Finally, Combine 2011, from November 21 to December 2, will be the 26th annual Faculty of Fine Arts undergraduate exhibition. Featuring the works of 17 students, the exhibition will include photography, sculpture, drawing, video and installation, among other media.
The MFA Gallery, which showcases the work of graduate students, and the VAV Gallery, a student-run gallery for undergraduates, both in the Visual Arts Building (1395 René-Lévesque Blvd. W.), will also be showcasing a variety of student artists, starting in mid- to late September.
Related links:
• Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery
• Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal
• Media Gallery
• FOFA Gallery
• MFA Gallery
• VAV Gallery