The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has mounted one of those shows that can probably best be described as once in a lifetime. Running from February 6 September 5, 2016 Pompeii, is a magnificent exhibition on the city that was laid to rest by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

The show consists of more than 220 of the best preserved works from the National Archeological Museum in Naples. The show is designed to provide a look at the public, private and intimate realms of Roman citizens when Vesuvius preserved the city and those citizens who remained under a blanket of ash. It is a portrait of ancient life frozen in time.

The show features frescoes, mosaics and statues in bronze, terra cotta and marble, luxurious accessories, silverware, everyday utensils, religious paraphernalia and an exquisite selection of erotica from the Secret Cabinet of the National Archeological Museum in Naples. The exhibition is accompanied by historically accurate music.

Summer 2016

Karel Funk, from June 11 through to October 2, 2016 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

The gallery is presenting the work of hometown artist Karel Funk, a Canadian artist who stands poised to breakout into international art scene stardom. Although some aspects of his work appear to carry forward Alex Colville’s mantel Funk is a hyperrealist mining a very Canadian vein.

Funk’s recent work focuses on single isolated figures wearing high performance outerwear against a white backdrop. Over the years the figures themselves have slowly disappeared. Funk’s work is held in major institutions including the National Gallery of Canada,  Whitney Museum of American Art, Art Gallery of Ontario, Solomon R. Guggenheim and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Summer 2016

From July 1, through to September 18, 2016 the Art Gallery of Ontario will be mounting The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris. This is the exhibition that you have been hearing about on and off for about a year. Yes, it is the one curated by funny man and musician Steve Martin. The exhibition has already been seen in Los Angeles and Boston. It is the first solo Harris exhibition  seen  in  the  United  States. The has been beefed for its Toronto incarnation to include some of his early work which features cityscapes and an epilogue that purports to explore the influence of Harris’ landscapes on Canadian identity. There are some 80 works on display.

While you are at the AGO you might want to wander over to Backdrop, Hurvin Anderson’s first major exhibition in Canada. Anderson is English and his family comes from Jamaica. One of Anderson’s interesting conceits is to paint landscape which is blocked off to the viewer because it is behind a metal trellis, fence or gate. Another point of interest is that most of his work is very large and once past the security elements lush. Backdrop runs through to August 21, 2016.

Summer 2016

Kudos for this summer’s blockbuster exhibition are going to the National Gallery in Ottawa for Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun, 1755-1842, running through September 11, 2016.

Vigee Le Brun was Marie Antoinette’s portraitist and a very fine painter she was indeed. There are roughly 90 paintings included in the exhibition including some of the beautiful self-portraits that Vigee Lebrun used as advertising. Works on exhibition are being loaned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which also helped organize the show and the Reunion des musée nationaux-Grand Palais, Paris and Queen Elizabeth II.

Vigee Le Brun was largely self taught and learned how to paint by studying other painters. Her rise to fame as a painter of the royal court and to the aristocracy in general is a testament to her superior abilities, given that the 18th century was very much a man’s world. Her portraits are striking for their use of light and their combined depiction of sensuality and immediacy.

Le Brun fled revolutionary France one step ahead of the guillotine and then proceeded to establish herself in a variety of European capitals before finally returning to France, when things settled down.

Summer 2016

If you happen to find yourself strolling through Trafalgar Square in London and a sudden overwhelming desire conspires within your breast to enter the hallowed halls of the British National Gallery, succumb to the temptation. There, from June 23 through to September 4, 2016, you will be able to see Painters’ Paintings: From Freud to Van Dyck. Now in some ways the thought of pairing up pictures seems to have swept through the curatorial world but the bee’s knees of this movement has in my mind come to fruition in London.

There, some 80 works of art which once belonged to great artists themselves are on display paired up with work by the artist that owned the painting. As Sir Joshua Reynolds wrote, “Works of art are models you are to imitate, and at the same time rivals you are to combat.”

The paintings are divided up into a series of case studies devoted to a particular painter-collector: Freud, Matisse, Degas, Leighton, Watts, Lawrence, Reynolds and Van Dyck.

Summer 2016

If you happen to find yourself strutting down the Boulevards in Gotham, during the first half of the summer, you just might want to take a side trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where until July 17th you can catch what in all likelihood will become a once in a lifetime chance to see Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms. The show consists of 264 artworks in marble, gold, bronze, silver and terra cotta and glass.

A good third of the objects on display come f rom the Pergamon Museum in Berlin which is being renovated. Pergamon is now called Bergama and located in Turkey.  After Alexander  the Great’s victories his generals established a series of city states that over the course of some 300 years spread the very best of Greek art across the eastern Mediterranean. This show will be of particular interest to those who like classical sculpture.

Summer 2016

Visionary Art Imprinting on Reality

Great Encounter

“The nomad, like the artist, will not on his journey unless he can envision a Promised Land.” – Jacques Attali

Dictionaries define the word voyage as a way or course taken, an attempt or undertaking, an enterprise, an expedition. Symbolically, a voyage illustrates the path one must follow to acquire knowledge or reach a higher spiritual dimension. The pilgrim’s voyage always brings him back to his point of departure. The soul’s voyage expresses a search for happiness, truth and immortality. Physical movement infers the conquest of new territory. A voyage is a long journey of exploration and discovery.

All definitions befitting in fact the timeless works of painter Joseph-Richard Veilleux as intermediaries between the world of the spirit and the wold of the living. Observe the precarious boats swaying through the tides, winds and waves! Watch the blue of the sea coalesce with the blue of the sky! See the passengers’ worried faces as they try to protect themselves with fragile umbrellas against the soaring elements splitting the atmosphere!  Abonnez-vous au contenu de notre site internet pour lire ce texte. Subscribe to our Website content to read more

Text by Michel Bois

Joseph-Richard Veilleux r.c.a. will be showing his works at Galerie Bernard in Montréal from August 18 to September 17, 2016. Opening August 17, in presence of the artist.

Joseph-Richard Veilleux is also represented by Galerie Linda Verge in Québec City and by Galerie Yvon Desgagnés in Baie-Saint-Paul.

Being True to Oneself – In Praise of Artistic Creation

Contemporary realism

“Art never comes to rest in the beds we’ve made-up for it.” – Jean Dubuffet

Those are the words by which Michel Blouin welcomed me to his Île d’Orléans home. Some sort of warning, I guess, but I was pleased to hear it. For the artist never dwells in the conformity of déjà-vu. To be able to take this stand, he has read all he could about art, and has visited a great number of exhibitions, locally and abroad. He was able to form a clear idea about the authenticity of self-expression in the visual arts.

A self-taught painter of undeniably unique talent, poet and musician, it’s refreshing to hear the artist speak of spontaneous art, without any form of academic pretention and conforming to no established aesthetic standards. Dubuffet would be speaking of “raw art” or “mediumistic painting”. As if a diamond in the rough was present in each of us, the facets of which we would need to polish to achieve the greatest possible luminescence.  Abonnez-vous au contenu de notre site internet pour lire ce texte. Subscribe to our Website content to read more

Text by Michel Bois

Michel Blouin is represented by: Galerie Québec Art, 40, rue notre-Dame, à Québec. Tel. : 418 692-8200

From the Heart

Art in a Feminine Perspective

A woman of heart! My first impression upon meeting Sonia Reid, an artist who followed an unusual career path. Radiant smile, as beautiful as any model, this charming, passionate and riveting woman warmly welcomes me as we meet in Québec’s Galerie Baron-Lafrenière on this first nice day of spring.

Author, lecturer, painter, Sonia Reid is a woman of many talents. Born in Québec City in 1973, she lived a happy childhood in Notre-Dame des Laurentides with her parents and her two sisters. Most of her family members work in the field of education. Her father was a teacher in the maritime sector. Thus, she wasn’t born into a family where artistic values were omnipresent.

During her youth, Sonia Reid is rather Cartesian, very organized and very athletic. She is interested in mathematics, which leads her to pursue studies in mechanical engineering at Laval University. She later obtains her master’s degree in project management at Université du Québec in Trois-Rivières.  Abonnez-vous au contenu de notre site internet pour lire ce texte. Subscribe to our Website content to read more

Text by Frédéric-Marc Gagné

You are invited to come and appreciate this great artist who brings a breath of freshness to Québec contemporary art, from September 1 to 6, 2016, at Galerie Baron Lafrenière, 66, Sault-au-Matelot, Québec city, or on her website: www.soniareid-art.com

Tied by Blood, Colour and Heart

Family in Art

During our interview, we readily engaged in a three-way conversation without predefined rules or subjects, akin to the Molleur sisters’ artistic path. In a fairly balanced exchange, which testifies to their long-established adjustment and to the immense affection and respect they hold for one another, I was able to collect their respective vision in a fully equal give and take of confidences. Concerned about the equitable recognition of their respective work, none attempted to overshadow the other, each taking turn to express their mutual points of view on the varied subjects that were brought up.

As members of a family of nine siblings, where art is highly valued, Mireille and Suzanne Molleur develop over the years a strong complicity that extends well beyond their being attracted to the same discipline. This initial complementarity, reinforced with time, later orchestrates their professional visibility through their participation as a duo in various artistic events, exhibiting their works side by side in perfect synergy. Each artist’s work however is unique, entirely independent one from the other, in style as much as in form. “There is no competition between us. We simply enjoy this bubble we have created where we both feel safe, the confluence of our energies also nourishing our respective individual production,” they declare in full agreement.  Abonnez-vous au contenu de notre site internet pour lire ce texte. Subscribe to our Website content to read more

Text by Lisanne LeTellier

Next October, we will find the Moller sisters at the renowned “Rencontre des Arts” in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, as well as on their respective websites. As their exhibits are almost always conjoined, if you find one you will assuredly find the other! And, without cheating, try to guess which is which…