Since 2017, over 6,100 refugees have arrived in Montreal. With her multimedia exhibition, Khadja Baker puts a name, face, and voice to six of these individuals with her captivating and powerful audio-visual installation, Birds Crossing Borders, which premiered on Sept. 13 at the theatre and gallery, Montreal Arts Interculturelle. A Kurdish-Syrian who witnessed the Syrian civil war firsthand, with family members who left unable to cross borders, Baker presents a collection of stories from Syrian refugees living in Montreal to chip away at the myth of refugees as radical extremists.
Art
Posters, drugs & rock n’ roll
Professor and curator Marc H. Choko’s exhibition, Nonconforming Poster Designers, displayed at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQÀM) Center of Design, is a psychedelic trip without the kool-aid. The show explores the work of two classically trained designers, Elzo Durt and Sebastien Lepine, and their experimental techniques and kaleidoscopic visual effects. Durt and Lepine disregard traditional boundaries of line, form, and color in a series of silk screen printed posters reminiscent of a visual hybrid, somewhere between the Merry Prankster’s day-glo bus paintings, and the meticulous detailing of a 17th century woodcut engraving.
Who inspired Picasso?
2018 is the year of Picasso’s renaissance. In May, he graced the cover of National Geographic, and in March, the Tate Modern launched “The EY Exhibition: Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy,” the first-ever Picasso exhibit at the London museum. It’s no wonder that Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts decided[Read More…]
McGill students lead initiative to heal trauma through art
In many ways, it feels like we are in an era full of newfound support for sexual assault survivors; public awareness campaigns like #MeToo and op-eds from celebrities such as Uma Thurman have helped facilitate, at least in many liberal cosmopolitan spaces, a more empathetic and trusting climate for outspoken[Read More…]
From the Viewpoint: Mosaica taught me how to love dance
I’m going to be honest—I know next to nothing about dance. It was therefore with some measure of anxiety that I attended the Mosaica Dance Company’s annual spring showcase. Of course the show would be good, of that I had very little doubt. The problem was instead how to write[Read More…]
Life Before Digital captures the day to day life of a bygone era
Life Before Digital, on display at the McCord Museum, is a collection by Montreal photographer Michel Campeau. Composed of film photography created between 2015 to 2017, the collection comprises colour and silver-print photographs of a time before the digital era. Campeau, who studied photography at Concordia University, gained notoriety for[Read More…]
Créer pour s’Aimer offers a platform for the margins of Montreal’s artistic community
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ (MMFA) Créer pour s’Aimer is an exhibition defined by its name (Creating to Love Oneself). The exhibition displays the work of individuals in an art therapy program called Les Impatients, through which members of the Montreal community with cognitive disabilities attend workshops and create art[Read More…]
Little corporal, big world
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA)’s Napoleon: Art and Court Life in the Imperial Palace offers a scale and quality of artwork exhibited in is immediately reflected upon entering the museum. The second floor of the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion is transformed into a replica of Tulieries Palace under[Read More…]
Symbols of Resistance celebrates Montreal’s black artists
Symbols of Resistance, on display at Galerie Mile-End Ame Art until the end of Black History Month, is an exhibition showcasing the work of local and international black artists. Annick Gold, organizer, along with a committee, selected the work of Kay Nau, Glowzi, Sika Valmé, Valérie Bah, Chelsy Monie, Carl-Philippe[Read More…]
FAC’s latest iteration of Nuit Blanche explores reiteration
Those who braved the trek across a snowy campus on Feb. 1 were rewarded with an evening of inspiring student artwork. The McGill Fine Arts Council (FAC) hosted its annual Nuit Blanche exhibition in the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) building. Nuit Blanche featured McGill-based artists and fine arts[Read More…]
