Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Great idea...

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Audiotopie is, as they write, an artist collective that combines architecture, landscape architecture, new media and electro-acoustic music. They come out with a bunch of audioguides (for lack of a better term) based around metro stations. I've only had the opportunity to hear one (on the Saint Laurent metro station) and unfortunately it promised more than it delivered.

Griffintown Interrupted

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An intriguing online only competition about some specific places in Griffintown.

Friday, October 22, 2010

What passes for visual arts coverage in the Gazette

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Zilon's Perfume.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer getting great press in California

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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, 'arguably the world's most important electronic artist...'

Can you name another electronic artist who is more important?

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The English Press in Montreal finally pick up the Rémy Couture story

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Last Friday (sorry, I've been busy) the Gazette published a story written by the Quebec correspondent for Postmedia News. The CBC at least got one of its reporters to cover it.

Why do I have to go to Ottawa to find out about art in Montreal?

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OK, I won't bust The Ottawa Citizen's chops that the exhibit is really taking place in Westmount and not Montreal, but if de Bellefeuille is sending out press releases, you'd kind of, sort of think that something local would pick up on it first.

And yes, I know I'm five days late on the news, but a) I've been busy and b) this ain't a primary news source (or at least it shouldn't be one).

Monday, October 18, 2010

Friday, October 15, 2010

Bomber by Constant van Hoeven

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Bomber from Constant van Hoeven on Vimeo.

An explosive look in the lives of Dutch Graffiti Bombers...


via

Thursday, October 14, 2010

In case you missed it, Remy Couture pleads not guilty

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Canadian Press article here (along with a cool picture). Personally I like how they translate the charge literally into Moral Corruption

Still nothing from the CBC or the Gazette, however the Hollywood Reporter has picked up on it.

And still more Alfred Pellan

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Back in 1984 when he won the Prix Borduas, Cécile Rodrigue from Radio-Canada went and interviewed Alfred Pellan. (Unfortunately I can't embed it here, so you gotta click on the link to hear it.)

And then in 1988, on the 40th anniversary of the publication of the Prisme d'yeux, Alfred Pellan was interviewed by Gilles Daignault. (Same deal about hearing it; click on the link.)

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

And more Alfred Pellan

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From 1944...



And M. Pellan's bit starts at 9:02.

The other film I mentioned on Monday is Voir Pellan, but it hasn't been made available online, yet.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Rémy Couture going to court tomorrow

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Québec is fast becoming a less appealing place to live. After reading this, the only reason I can think of to stay is that it is worse elsewhere.

To back up a little, Rémy Couture, is a special effects artist for film. He made some films of his own. He got busted by the RCMP last year. His case is finally making it to trial tomorrow.

His ordeal has made it into the local French press (La Presse, Journal de Montreal, Journal de Québec, Le Devoir, Mario Dumont, and while I usually totally and completely disagree and dislike anything Richard Martineau does, this time I agree with him)





But where is the rest of the press? The Montreal Gazette? The Montreal Mirror? The Hour? CTV Montreal? CBC? Or do they think somehow that that a French artist being busted isn't worth the trouble to report?

If you want to read more try these on for size:
InnerDepravity, the website which got Rémy Couture busted.
The Facebook page supporting him.
The Rémy Couture website.
And documentingreality.com and neogaf.com forums

[Edit 20h: He was also on Christiane Charette this morning.]

Billy Mavreas over at Reading Art

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Apparently Mr. Mavreas has been busy...

Monday, October 11, 2010

Episode 116: Alfred Pellan at the Centre d'exposition de l'Université de Montréal [Zeke's Alternate Art Review]

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Episode 15 [11:00]
Download:
MP3 15MB / FLAC 48MB / Ogg Vorbis 8MB or Stream

Chris 'Zeke' Hand discussing the Alfred Pellan retrospective at the Centre d'exposition de l'Université de Montréal with Lisyan Pieries.

Listen


Originally broadcast on the Monday Morning After on CKUT 90.3 FM, Montreal.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Randall Anderson making it in Toronto

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According to Blog TO, the kick-ass art professor at John Abbott has something that sounds very interesting up at the Toronto Sculpture Garden.

Personally, I want to know what happened to Zoom!

Rey-a-Day & mail art seven days a week

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I normally don't like putting a spotlight on specific art blogs, just because it has the potential to increase the number of emails I receive every day. Exponentially. But despite the potential danger, I quite like and enjoy Edith Rey's blog, called doreyme and Kiera Pannel's, called This is Art. mail art seven days a week.

Full Disclosure: Edith is a good friend and Kiera lives around the corner from me.

So yeah, if you live around the corner and are a good friend, email me to ask if I can write about your art blog.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Episode 115: Albert Ohayon and the NFB [Zeke's Alternate Movie Discussion]

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Episode 115 [31:02]
Download:
MP3 40MB / FLAC 170MB / Ogg Vorbis 22MB or Stream

Chris 'Zeke' Hand, Ariel Fournier, Andrew Seo, Eric Boivin, and Sami Malki in a round table discussion with Albert Ohayon, Collections Analyst at the NFB on and about the NFB.ca website and the NFB itself.

Listen


Originally broadcast on the Wednesday Morning After on CKUT 90.3 FM, Montreal.

More sad news

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Maddalena Poliseno died last week. "Who?" I hear you ask, Mme Alfred Pellan.

La galerie d’art Jules Harvey is closing

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It is always sad news when an art gallery closes, this is made even more poignant when it is a gallery that has been in business for more than 40 years. You can read more about it here.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Episode 114: Russell T. Gordon, Over Easy - Metaphores en series [Zeke's Alternate Art Review]

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Episode 114 [11:36]
Download:
MP3 15MB / FLAC 53MB / Ogg Vorbis 8MB or Stream

Chris 'Zeke' Hand discussing Russell T. Gordon's exhibits called Over Easy - Metaphores en series at Stewart Hall and Galerie McClure with Lisyan Pieries

Listen


Originally broadcast on the Monday Morning After on CKUT 90.3 FM, Montreal.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Running an Art Gallery in Milwaukee sounds like it is the same as running an Art Gallery in Montreal

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First off, I gotta thank Stefan Zebrowski-Rubin, prior to him becoming a guest blogger at Art21 I kinda, sorta just scanned the headlines of their blog. But now I've actually started reading them, and boy-oh-boy am I glad I did. They have a new guest blogger, Mike Brenner, and he is writing about his experiences running Hotcakes, an art gallery in Milwaukee.

For those of you out of the loop, I used to run an art gallery here in Montreal called Zeke's Gallery, and while all of Mike's experiences aren't the exact same as my experiences, they are pretty gosh darn similar, and it doesn't hurt that he knows how to write as well.

I'm looking forward to his future entries...

Stefan Zebrowski-Rubin on Rafael Lozano-Hemmer & Vida Simon

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Man that's a mouthful; "Stefan Zebrowski-Rubin on Rafael Lozano-Hemmer," but I won't get into Quebec civil law here. However of all the artists in Montreal I'd be hard pressed to name one whose art I appreciate more than Mr. Lozano-Hemmer. Mr. Zebrowski-Rubin did a kick-ass interview with him on the Art21 blog last week.

And since I like being comprehensive, there's also Mr. Zebrowski-Rubin's post on Vida Simon (and artist I was previously unaware of). So if you're keeping score at home that makes five artists I knew of and three that I didn't in Mr. Zebrowski-Rubin's series on art in Montreal. 62.5% not bad if I can say so myself given how many artists there are here...