Francine Potvin Toucher le coeur sauvage de la vie

Vernissage: Thursday, November 1st at 6 pm
Exhibition: November 2 to 24, 2007

The McClure Gallery is pleased to present a mixed media exhibition of works by Francine Potvin. The installation, which includes ceramic works, a series of collagraphs and a mosaic of approximately sixty cyanotypes, addresses the mysteries of plant life and our multifaceted relationship to flora.
Fascinated by the physical, chemical, biological and “suprasensible” qualities of self-propagating flora, commonly known as weeds, Potvin focuses on these disobedient plants as representative of our reciprocal relationship to nature.
Francine Potvin searches for, in her words, “other ways of considering this vegetable matter, other ways of feeling the energy inside these plants, of grasping their wild force, magnificent and sacred, in order to invite contemplation and to touch the wild nature of life”.

Francine Potvin lives, works and gardens in Farnham in the Eastern Townships. She has taught studio art at Concordia University since 1993. Potvin has exhibited her work mainly in Quebec, notably at the Centre des arts contemporains du Québec à Montréal, the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Circa and the Centre de Céramique Bonsecours. She has received grants from the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and The Canada Council for the Arts. Her work is included in the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, the National Bank of Canada and the Collection Prêt d’oeuvres d’art du Musée du Québec.
Francine Potvin wishes to thank the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association (CUPFA) for their Professional Development grants.

Louise deLorme Wall Drawings and Paintings

Vernissage: Thursday, November 29 at 6 pm
Exhibition: November 30 to December 21, 2007

The McClure Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent works by Hemmingford artist Louise deLorme. deLorme is concerned with formal issues relating to structure, spatial illusion and what constitutes abstraction versus representation. Choosing to work deliberately in a brutal style void of embellishment, she experiments with the multiplicity of meanings inherent in particular shapes, and how these meanings are transformed according to their placement on a two-dimensional surface. The exhibition includes both small format acrylic drawings and large format oil paintings
The organic elements in both the drawings and paintings appear to be on the verge of dissolving or liquefying, calling attention to their potential for interpretation as ambiguous locations as well as abstract constructions of brushwork. Louise deLorme’s works aim to rethink landscape and call into question the notion of the image and its representation in space.

The artist’s work encompasses the mediums of drawing, painting and sculpture. Born in Montreal, deLorme studied graphic design and printmaking at Concordia University from 1979 to 1980 and received a BFA from l’Université du Québec à Montréal in 1988. She has presented solo as well as group exhibitions in Canada and internationally. She has realized sculptures for the Public Art Program of the Ministry of Culture of Quebec and the Urban Community of Montreal. Her work is included in private and national collections in Canada, Japan and the USA.

Véronique La Perrière M. La sirène, l’âne et le bouleau
Vasil Nikov Turbulences

Vernissage: Thursday, January 10 at 6 pm
Exhibition: January 11 to February 2, 2008

The McClure Gallery is pleased to present two solo exhibitions. Turbulences, recent sculptures by Vasil Nikov and La sirène, l’âne et le bouleau, a series of recent drawings and lithographs by Véronique La Perrière M.
Vasil Nikov’s sculptures attempt to reveal the eternal and universal feeling of love, often inspired by the female body. In pushing the work towards abstraction, the artist attempts to fuse several sculptural and cultural traditions while allowing the inherent qualities of his materials to speak to the vitality and beauty of the human form.
Véronique La Perrière M.’s drawings and lithographs play with the concept of the cabinet of curiosities, grouping together a collection of images and objects that explore notions of anomaly and normality. The narrative of La Perrière M.’s work borrows from the language of fairy tales to describe fantastic stories. Her work deals with memory, perception and identity.

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Vasil Nikov has lived and worked in Montreal since 2001. He received a MFA from the University of Fine Arts in Bulgaria. His artistic practice includes sculpture, painting and graphic arts. His work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada and internationally. vasilnikovart.com
Born in Quebec city, Véronique La Perrière M. lives and works in Montreal. In 2006 she completed her MFA in visual and media arts at l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Her interdisciplinary artistic practice encompasses photography, video, installation, drawing and printmaking. Her work has been presented in Canada, the United States, Australia, Finland and Luxembourg.

Vernissage: Thursday, February 7 at 6 pm
Exhibition: February 8 to March 1, 2008

The McClure Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition by Montreal artist Denis Routhier. The artist presents a series of medium and large format acrylic paintings on fabric.
For the artist, perpetual dissatisfaction is the engine of the Western world, manufacturing our desires and perpetuating our anxieties. Often taking this subject to the limit of the absurd, Denis Routhier’s work examines the causes and effects of a toxic culture at the cost of our mental and physical well-being, memory and our perception of the outside world.
Momento explores the issue of the news and in particular specific historical events where the image has been repeatedly shown, such as the explosion of the Challenger or the assassination of President Kennedy. The artist suggests that the treatment these events receive by the news media transforms the nature and impact they have on the spectator. Routhier manipulates these supermediated images, reducing them to silhouettes, almost like ghosts of the original catastrophe, while at the same time attempting to reclaim their nature as human drama.

Born in 1975, Denis Routhier lives and works in Montreal. He received a BFA from Concordia University in 2001. He recently presented a solo exhibition at Observatoire 4 in Montreal in 2004-05 and participated in the group exhibition Topsy Turvy World at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2006.

Vernissage: Thursday, March 6 at 6 pm
Exhibition: March 7 to 29, 2008

The McClure Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent work by artist Holly King. Twisted Roots (2006-2008) consists of a series of large format giclée prints created from black and white maquettes of imaginary landscapes the artist constructed in her studio. The photographs convey a kind of dream landscape and represent a new direction of investigation for the artist. The works are more somber and relate to drawing and mark making in their appearance.
King began working with pieces of twisted roots from an apple tree, then used ink drawn lines and projected shadows to create an ephemeral imaginary world. The sometimes troubling atmosphere of the images suggests mysterious spaces that are hard to define, images that question the interplay between the material and indefinable.
Within these fabricated barren decors, a narrative is set in place: the wind leaves its trace, transparent butterflies take flight, clouds threaten the landscape. It is a world that is at once haunting and fragile.

Holly King lives and works in Montreal. She received a BFA from Laval University and a Masters in Studio Art from York University in Toronto. King has exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions in Canada, France and Switzerland as well as many group exhibitions around the world. Several publications and essays have recognized the importance of King’s work to the history of Canadian photography.

Vernissage: Saturday, April 5 at 12 pm
Exhibition: April 5 to 23, 2008

Students registered in the School of Art’s winter session are invited to exhibit their work in our Annual Student Exhibition. The exhibition, which includes hundreds of works in a wide variety of media, gives students the experience of seeing their work in the context of a professional gallery. It also provides an opportunity for students and public to see the great diversity of creative activity that takes place at the Centre.

Harlan Johnson Puits d’huile

Vernissage: Thursday, May 1 at 6 pm
Exhibition: May 2 to 24, 2008

The McClure Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of large format paintings by Harlan Johnson entitled, Puits d’huile. Part landscape, part abstraction, Johnson’s paintings place stark images of industrial architecture within marine settings. Translucent acrylic paint washes over the looming structures of drilling platforms at sea. The paintings are connected by their consistent use of an image of an offshore oil platform that dominates its watery environment.
In the past the artist has produced many works informed by photographic documentation of the natural world. This present series marks the first time the artist has addressed the genre of marine landscape painting. In so doing, Johnson has invented a context through which he recounts his interest in 20th century abstraction. Derived from low resolution jpeg photos, these marinescapes are reconstituted through filmy spatters of acrylic pigments.
The works speak of Johnson’s attraction to pictorial ideals of purity and transcendence that, in the artist’s view, increasingly can only be savoured in a compromised melancholic way. They portray, as well, the artist’s desire to experience the shifting alignments of ideals and physical existence that painting makes possible.

Born in Halifax, Harlan Johnson lives and works in Montreal where he received a BFA and MFA from Concordia University. His work has been shown in several Canadian cities including Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Moncton. He currently teaches in the Fine Arts Department at Dawson College.

Mary Hayes Brats

Vernissage: Thursday, May 29 at 6 pm
Exhibition: May 30 to June 21, 2008

The McClure Gallery is pleased to present the recent portrait paintings of Mary Hayes. The exhibition, Brats, offers a visual reinterpretation of an evolving perception of childhood. The artist’s portraits in oil on canvas provide a glimpse into the soul of her subjects as they negotiate an often uncertain and uncomfortable stage of their lives – puberty.
Traditionally perceived as symbols of innocence, in a contemporary context, children are more often portrayed in the media as computer-savvy, sexually precocious, materialistic brats. Brats plays upon these fears and conventions to present portraits of individuals not yet fully adult but more complex and developed than generally assumed.
Hayes invites us to reflect upon the painted portrait as a vehicle for expressing emotional complexity. For her, portraiture is not just an issue of capturing a facsimile of a person’s likeness. Rather, Hayes’ concerns are more in keeping with Pamela Allara’s description of the portrait as an object that serves as a metaphor of a person’s character. The interest resides in the choices the artist makes, for instance, in the facial expressions of the adolescents she paints and what these expresssions convey about the reality of this complex, often troubled period of life.

Mary Hayes lives and works in Montreal. She received her BFA from Concordia in 1988 and is the recipient of grants from the Conseil des arts et des letters du Quebec. Since 2000, she has taught drawing and painting at the Visual Arts Centre. Her work has been shown in Canada, the United-States and Dominican Republic.

Ikebana Harmony of Nature

Vernissage: Wednesday, June 25 at 6 pm
Exhibition: June 25 – 28, 2008

The McClure Gallery is pleased to present a special four-day exhibition of approximately 20 floral arrangements by members, teachers and masters of The Montreal Chapter of the Ohara School of Ikebana.
The art of Ikebana (literally “flowers kept alive”) is one of the many cultural and artistic exports of Japan. Its connection to all forms of nature and the strong observation of the seasons establishes a much-needed link to the natural and spiritual world.
Ohara, the first of the modern schools of Ikebana, was formed when Ohara Unshin broke from the Ikenobo school in the late 19th century. The Ohara school generally uses moribana (piled-up flowers) in a shallow, flat container. The school was started at a time when Western culture was heavily influential in Japan and the moribana style made good use of Western plants. The Montreal Chapter was founded in 2002 by Cornelia Singh, who is the current President.
In addition to the floral arrangements, the exhibition will feature a series of paintings by the top Master of the Ohara School of Canada, Mitsugi “Shinran” Kikuchi. Since 1971, Mitsugi has exhibited regularly across Canada and in New York. In 2002, he was awarded the “Japanese Foreign Minister Award” in recognition of a lifetime of artistic work in bridging cultural ties between Japan and Canada. He is the holder of a Sub-Grandmaster degree from the Ohara School of Ikebana.

Exposition Jeunesse Exposition universelle 2038

Vernissage: Wednesday, July 30 from 4 to 7 pm
Exhibition: July 31 to August 23, 2008

The McClure Gallery has been transformed into a brilliant voyage into the future by children aged 6 to 12 years of age. The art on the walls is fabulous, colourful, imaginative and even interactive.
Thanks to the generous funding of the TD Bank Financial Group, the youth department of the Visual Arts Centre invited kids from the community to participate in a series of workshops on the world of the future. Youth from Tyndale St. George, Westhaven and Laval Community Centres as well as the Montreal Children’s Hospital were amongst those participating.
“It is one of the most exciting youth exhibitions we’ve had in our gallery,” noted Victoria LeBlanc, director of the Centre. “We are very grateful to the TD Bank for sponsoring this project. We’ve been able to offer youth out there in the community an opportunity to creatively express themselves and, wow, are they creative!”
The exhibition Expo 2038 presents a futuristic world fair. Curated by Geneviève Beauchamps, a teacher at the Centre, the exhibition showcases the imagined inventions of prized architects, fashion designers, artists, and engineers of the future. Where and how will we live in 2038? How will we dress? What innovations will make our lives easier, healthier, more sustainable? World Fair 2038 will be a window into the future – as designed by young artists of today!