In a time of glamourized celebrity personas and pristine, unchanging faces, Richard Avedon’s work is a breath of fresh air. The American fashion photographer and portraitist treasured the honest representation of aging in those he photographed. The exhibit Immortal–Portraits of Aging at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts features his[Read More…]
Tag: mmfa
Art exhibition ‘Comfort and Indifference’ invites a reflection on shielded spectatorship
In a world where scrolling past tragedy has become routine, the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art’s (MAC) latest exhibition Comfort and Indifference asks us to reflect on the human cost of ignoring suffering while surrounding ourselves with comfort. On view at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which made one[Read More…]
Kent Monkman’s ‘History is Painted by the Victors’ tackles colonialist mythmaking
In a world where history is painted by the victor, Kent Monkman takes on a personal challenge to tell an equally biased history, one painted by his subversive, heel-clad, hypersexual alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. Monkman, a world-renowned queer and two-spirit artist from the Fisher River Cree Nation in Manitoba,[Read More…]
Glimmers of art in everyday life at the MMFA’s Decorative Art and Design Pavilion
To my right stands a four-foot-tall ceramic vase with hands cupping its own belly. To my left, chairs built from large plains of vibrant primary colours. Directly in front of me is a bird’s nest half my height made from plush felt—inside resting three large eggs. As I continue to[Read More…]
Exploring the etchings of women’s shame at ‘Bad Girls Only’
Their bodies are cast in stark black ink. Harsh cross-hatching carves out exaggerated forms featuring sagging breasts and bulging stomachs. The slight fingers of one of the women curve around a heart, pulling it to her mouth moments before taking a bite. Another’s hand grasps tightly around the hilt of[Read More…]
Wieland exhibit at the MMFA wears its heart on its sleeve
Joyce Wieland stares with dots of navy for eyes, a dash of white for a nose, and no mouth. She is pale and faceless, yet her portrait seems to pose defiantly. She is challenging us. Heart On—which opened at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) on Feb. 8—commemorates Joyce[Read More…]
Unravelling preconceived notions about contemporary art with ‘Ravel Ravel Interval’
When I find myself pushing open the heavy glass doors of the Montreal Museum of Fine Art’s Contemporary Art Square, I am admittedly apprehensive. I’ve never been drawn to contemporary art pieces, often finding that they lean so esoteric as to feel alienating. My expectation for Anri Sala’s piece, Ravel[Read More…]
‘Two by Two, Together’ bridges the gap between art and viewer
Two by Two, Together, the latest exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), displays works that have been acquired by the museum over the past five years. Open as of Sept. 11, the exhibition groups together a multitude of works by both local and international artists from 440[Read More…]
MMFA lecture examines Riopelle’s Arctic inspiration
On Mar. 10, Roy Ellenwood, a retired professor from York University and translator of Québécois literature, presented “Riopelle and Indigenous Art: The French Connection,” an online lecture with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). The presentation, which complemented the exhibit Riopelle: The Call of Northern Landscapes and Indigenous Cultures,[Read More…]
MMFA’s ‘Survivance’ lives on through virtual exhibition
While we run out of Netflix shows to binge, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) offers us a new source of virtual entertainment: Art exhibits. Of the five very different exhibitions currently available, ranging from Riopelle ‘s landscapes to Signac’s pointillism paintings, Manuel Mathieu’s seemingly expressionist Survivance installation is not[Read More…]