Ellen Art Gallery recognized at gala
Concordia’s Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery was recently honoured with two nominations for Best Exhibition — Museum at the inaugural edition of the Visual Arts Gala, organized by the Contemporary Art Galleries Association (AGAC). The non-profit association created the awards as a celebration of the best in contemporary art in Montreal and across Québec.
“The fact that we were nominated twice in the same category is great,” said Michèle Thériault, Director of the Ellen Art Gallery. “It is a recognition by our peers that the gallery is an important player in the contemporary art scene in Quebec.”
The gallery received its first nomination for the exhibition Martha Wilson: Staging the Self, curated by Peter Dykhuis, director and curator of the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, N.S. Drawing on both the personal archives of the artist Martha Wilson accumulated over the span of her forty-year career, the exhibition examined the themes of negotiated identities and contested histories as it posed questions about the current significance of feminism and socially engaged artistic practices.
Out of Grace, the second Ellen Art Gallery exhibition to be nominated, was conceived by the choreographer Lynda Gaudreau / Compagnie De Brune for the gallery. Gaudreau’s project examined how an exhibition space can interact with the living body and works of art. Out of Grace was presented in five phases over five weeks and involved five performers and five visual artists.
The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal won the prize for Best Exhibition — Museum for its show, Anri Sala, curated by Marie Fraser.
Louise Dandurand, Vice-President, Research and Graduate Studies at Concordia University, said the Ellen Art Gallery’s two nominations underline its significant contribution to promoting contemporary art in Montreal.
“The Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery has long been recognized for the vital role it plays in showcasing creations that break traditional forms to introduce the public to the most exciting innovations in contemporary art. The gallery has now gone far beyond its original mandate as an exhibition space to become an important hub of research into cutting edge artistic practices.”
A number of other events at and individuals who work with the Ellen Art Gallery were also recognized at the gala. Nicole Gingras, an independant curator who is a frequent collaborator of the gallery’s, won the award for Commissaire de l'année (Curator of the Year). Gingras curated the Ellen Art Gallery’s most recent exhibit, Raymond Gervais 3X1.
Meredith Carruthers, the curator of the project Parade which took place in the gallery's atrium facing window last summer, was nominated in the category Jeune commissaire de l'année (Young Curator of the Year).
Related links:
• Out of Grace
• Martha Wilson: Staging the Self
• Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery