The Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery presents:
This is Montreal!
This collection based exhibition curated by Andrew Hunter will feature important modernist works from its collection (paintings, drawings and sculptures by Marcel Barbeau, Yves Gaucher, Denis Juneau, Guido Molinari, Françoise Sullivan and Claude Tousignant) and other rarely seen works from the 60s and 70s including a large fiber installation by Nancy Herbert.
These works are players in an elaborate narrative that maps the Montréal of Andrew Hunter’s childhood dreams, experienced by him for the first time during the early 1970s as a futuristic, cosmopolitan utopia that stood in harsh contrast to his modest suburban home in Hamilton, Ontario.
Exhibition dates: March 14 – April 19, 2008
Working with a blurred model of the modern design museum, the trade-fair display and the World Fair, Hunter creates a visual and textual narrative of the city and its iconography through the interplay of the Gallery’s collection, along with photographs, furniture, film, magazines and tourist brochures from that period, as well as souvenirs from Expo ’67.
This is Montréal! is a flawed, yet dynamically bold and convincing articulation of an idea of a place seen and imagined by an outsider.
An artist, writer and curator, Andrew Hunter has produced exhibitions, site projects, publications and writings for institutions across Canada including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Hunter is currently the Director of RENDER, a unique arts-based research, teaching and presentation center, located at the University of Waterloo.
Events:
Wednesday, March 12 at 6:00 p.m. - Lecture by Andrew Hunter, VA-323, Studio Arts building, 1395 boul. René-Lévesque West.
Thursday, March 13 at 4:30 p.m. - Tour of the exhibition with Andrew Hunter.
Vernissage: Thursday, March 13, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Gallery hours and location: Tuesday to Friday, 12:00 – 6:00 p.m., Saturday 12:00 – 5:00 p.m., Ground floor J.W. McConnell Library Building, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd., West.
Free admission – wheelchair accessible.
The Gallery will be closed from Friday, March 21, to Monday, March 24, inclusively.
For more information, call (514) 848-2424 ext. 4750 or visit the Ellen Gallery website.
Posted on March 6, 2008
