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Gallery gets nod from Canadian Art

Publication pays tribute to programming at Concordia's Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery.
January 3, 2011
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By Nadia Kherif


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Peter Mettler, Picture of Light, 1994. Film.
Peter Mettler, Picture of Light, 1994. Film. | Photo courtesy of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery.

Two exhibitions at Concordia’s Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery are listed in the top three of 2010 by Canadian Art magazine.

The noteworthy exhibitions are Magnetic Norths and the Montreal segment of Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965–1980, a pan-Canadian project that was produced in collaboration with several museums across the country.

Laurent Grasso HAARP 2007 Installation view, courtesy Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery. | Photo Paul Litherland
Laurent Grasso HAARP 2007 Installation view. Courtesy of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery. | Photo by Paul Litherland.

The Magnetic Norths exhibition, presented in winter 2010, used Mercator’s 1595 speculation of dual magnetic north poles as a starting point.

It comprised contemporary and historical works, radio transmissions and sound productions, which proposed a vision of the Arctic as a historical repository and as the backdrop for fantasies. Bryne McLaughlin, managing editor of Canadian Art, was fascinated by the strength and quality of the images.

Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965–1980 is a pan-Canadian project produced in collaboration with the University of Toronto’s Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, the Alberta Art Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery and Halifax INK. 

General Idea Light On 1972 Documentation image Courtesy A.A. Bronson.
General Idea Light On 1972. Documentation image courtesy of A.A. Bronson.

Traffic was inaugurated in September at the University of Toronto and will travel across Canada over the next two years. It is to be presented at the Ellen Gallery in January 2012.

This omnibus exhibition of works examines the development of conceptual art in Canada during the 1960s and 1970s.

It was conceived by five curators from across Canada representing important areas of production during those years.

Michèle Thériault, director of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery is the Montreal curator of Traffic along with independent curator Vincent Bonin.

The Ellen gallery is an interface between Concordia University and Canadian and international contemporary art. An important contemporary art center in Montreal, it offers four major projects a year on various issues relevant to art today. Historical projects are also offered but always within a contemporary perspective.

Learn more about the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery:

 



Related links:
•    Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery
•    Magnetic Norths
•    Canadian Art article



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