The Belgo ReportBettina Forget

Highlights from 2008 - 2011

The Belgo ReportBettina Forget

Highlights from 2008 - 2011

A typical scene: during a vernissage in my gallery, a visitor is casually clasping a glass of red wine while we’retalking about art. “So, how come you set up your gallery in this building?” he inquires. “It’s a great spot” I reply.“Besides being downtown and close to Place-des-arts, I also love the cultural vibe of the Belgo.” I take a sip ofwine. “You know, there are over thirty art galleries and artist’s studios in this building.” His eyebrows rise andhe cranes his head out of the door, peering down the long, yellow corridor. “You’re kidding! I guess I shouldcome back to visit.”

When I opened my gallery about five years ago, this happened all the time. I am amazed at how manyMontrealers are unaware of the Belgo building, and its host of art galleries, dance studios, and artist’s ateliers.A great number of Montreal’s high-profile artists and gallerists exhibit and work here, and there are at least threevernissages every week, not to mention the myriad of book launches, art and dance performances, workshops,lectures, and artists’ talks.

I decided something needed to be done to make Montrealers - and the world - aware of the Belgo building andits fantastic cultural offerings; and so the Belgo Report was born. At first it was an unassuming blog, featuringbite-sized write-ups of some of my favourite art exhibitions taking place in the Belgo. Over the years the bloggrew into an online magazine, featuring a calendar, interactive panoramas, a video module, and regular featuressuch as Friday’s Favourite Four and This Week in the Belgo. As of 2011 the Belgo is also sent out as a weeklydigest to those too busy to surf the internet.

Readership has soared, and reviews from the Belgo Report have been picked up by gallerists and artists alike;the most exotic being an artbook publisher in Korea. This positive feedback inspired me to consider publishinghighlights from the online magazine as a printed art catalogue. You are holding in your hands Edition 1 of whatI am hoping will be the first in a long series of Belgo Report books.

See you at the next vernissage!

Bettina ForgetProducer and WriterThe Belgo Report

ABOUT THE BELGO REPORTFrom Screen to Print

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Jessica Auer’s rich, highly detailed C-prints transport you to the edge of the sea. In her series of works titledUnmarked Sites currently on show at Les Territoires, she explores ancient cultural sites and settlements inNewfoundland and Labrador. Like an archeologist, but with a camera instead of a pick-axe, Auer tracks downisolated villages, remnants of pre-historic structures, burial mounds, sod huts, fjords. Some of these remnants ofcivilization are barely visible, and you may have missed them had the artist not captured them on film.

What is evident, however, is how both time and human activity have subtly changed the landscape, each ontheir own time scale. The majestic, rugged landscape is dotted with tiny homes and a spider-web of foot-paths.Erosion and the sea wear away at the massive boulders. Auer’s work examines how change to the environmentis caused by humans and by nature, but also at the efforts made to preserve the region’s cultural identity.

Jessica AuerUnmarked Sites

LES TERRITOIRES

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Ancient Quarry

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In the hectic bustle of “la rentrée” Galerie Trois Points feels like a calm oasis. Delicate shadows of cherry treescast intricate patterns across half a dozen large-format photographs by Russian artist Olga Chagaoutdinova.Actually, it took me a moment to realize that I was indeed looking at shadows, the tight shots of softly blurredbranches reminded me of a Sally Mann print until I spotted a few sharply focused leaves hugging the edge ofthe frame. This is a wonderful series of prints, but their strength lies not just in their aesthetics, but in the artist’sdeeply personal narrative: they tell a story of family and loss, and illustrate the ephemeral nature of our existence.

At the back of the gallery, behind a partition wall, hangs a solitary photograph, showing a white piece of fabricwith a few awkward scribbles on them. These are the last words of Chagaoutdinova’s grandmother, writtenmoments before her death. This simple bed sheet forms the backdrop of the Sakura tree shadow photographs.Chagaoutdinova chose the Sakura tree (a type of cherry tree), because it symbolizes her grandmother’s ethnicheritage; the tree grows in her grandmother’s homeland, the far Eastern region of Russia, near the border withChina. The tree’s stunning pink blossoms only last for one week, expressing the transience of life and beauty.Just as the blossoms fall and the shadow of the Sakura tree glides across the picture frame, the people closestto us also flower and fade.

In the Time of Sakura is a poetic, cathartic work; an expression of Chagaoutdinova’s personal grief, which findsan echo in us all.

Olga ChataoutdinovaIn the Time of Sakura

GALERIE TROIS POINTS

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In the Time of Sakura #2

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The sheer size and colour of David Elliot’s works currently on show at Joyce Yahouda Gallery are imposing.You feel as though the canvases are going to suck you in, like Alice stepping through the looking glass. Luminous,smooth, and in a seeming jumble, a random collection of images are scattered across the picture plane: realisticallyrendered fruit, cats, and toys, super-sized computer icons, wood-cuts, and newspaper clippings. Sometimes theelements float on Pop Art inspired backgrounds, sometimes they seem trapped in a tight box, fighting to get out.

At first blush Elliot’s works look like giant collages, but the recurring motif of the shiny, delicious apples betraysclear signs of careful brush strokes, and it’s this painterly quality which holds all the pieces together.

At the core of Elliot’s work is the concept of the still life, in particular the “vanitas.” What used to be a sombercontemplation of the transience of life in 17th century European painting has been given a contemporary updateby this artist. Instead of skulls, decaying fruit, and hourglasses he conjures up a disorienting riot of 20th centurysymbols, both mundaneand profound. In a world as perpetually rushed as ours, a meditation on the impermanence of life becomes evermore poignant.

David ElliotLullaby

GALERIE JOYCE YAHOUDA

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Lullaby

INDEX

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PHOTOGRAPHY

Les Territoires Jessica Auer Unmarked Sites 29/04 - 14/05/2011 2Galerie Trois Points Olga Chagaoutdinova In the Time of Sakura 25/08 - 01/10/2011 4Art 45 Angela Grauerholz Recent Works 06/04 - 26/04/2008 6Galerie Lilian Rodriguez Josée Pedneault So You Don’t Forget About Me 01/05 - 05/06/2011 8

PAINTING

Galerie [SAS] Carlito Dalceggio Fear of Death - Death of Fear 29/04 - 29/05/2010 10Galerie Joyce Yahouda David Elliot Lullaby 17/02 - 26/03/2011 12Galerie Roger Bellemare John Heward Recent Works 22/11 - 20/12/2008 14Galerie Nicolas Robert Robert Houle Artifact Abstractions 15/10 - 19/11/2011 16GEspace Robert Poulin Harlan Johnson Show de Groupe 01/12/11 - 14/01/12 18Maison Kasini Kirsten McCrea Hot Topic 03/08 - 08/09/2011 20Pierre-François OuelletteArt Contemporain Kent Monkman The Atelier 14/05 - 25/06/2011 22Galerie Trois Points Natalie Reis Toxic Cornucopia 04/30 - 28/05/2011 24Laroche/Joncas Ben Sloat His Eyes Were Like Mine 11/05 - 11/06/2011 26Laroche/Joncas Yadir Quintana In Time of Silver Rain 15/06 - 23/07/2011 28

SCULPTURE AND INSTALLATION

Galerie Pangée Davide Bertocchi Empirical Resolution Attempts 16/11/11 - 18/02/12 30Visual Voice Art Gallery Anne Cherix MOTUS 31/01 - 09/02/2008 32Pierre-François OuelletteArt Contemporain Jérôme Fortin Autoportraits 03/09 - 17/10/2008 34Centre d’exposition Circa Pierre Gallais MatHérialisation 11/06 - 09/07/2011 36

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Galerie B-312 Geoffrey Jones A Plan for a Northern Hemisphere 11/04 - 10/05/2008 38Galerie Donald Browne Valerie Kolakis Lost in the Supermarket 23/04 - 04/06/2011 40SCB Gallery Recent Projects on Baghdadof Contemporary Art Michael Rakowitz and Montreal 13/05 - 20/06/2010 42Centre des arts actuels Skol Ian Wojtowics The Betweeners 16/04 - 22/05/2010 44

FILM AND VIDEO

Centre des arts actuels Skol Patrick Bernatchez Chrysalides 04/04 - 03/05/2008 46SCB Galleryof Contemporary Art Emanuel Licha Why Photogenic? 01/05 - 19/06/2010 48

PRINT AND DRAWING

Galerie Illustration Québec Julie Deschenaux Bic la Bohème 05/06 - 26/06/2008 50Arprim Stefan Hoffmann All Systems Normal 29/10 - 03/12/2011 52Optica Janice Kerbel Remarkable, Decks 06/09 - 11/10/2008 54Galerie Luz Andre van der Kerkhoff New York Blues 02/07 - 26/07/2008 56

GALLERY LISTING

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1ST FLOOR

Galerie Illustration Québecspace 123www.illustrationquebec.com

2ND FLOOR

Art 45space 220www.art45.ca

Pierre François OuelletteArt Contemporainspace 216www.pfoac.com

3RD FLOOR

Galerie A. B.space 313www.galerieab.com

Centre des arts actuels Skolspace 314www.skol.ca

Espace AGACspace 318www.agac.qc.ca

4TH FLOOR

Galerie B-312space 403www.galerieb-312.qc.ca

Galerie Lilian Rodriguezspace 405www.galerielilianrodriguez.com

Maison Kasinispace 408http://maisonkasini.com

Galerie Laroche/Joncasspace 410www.larochejoncas.com

Espace Robert Poulinspace 411

Galerie Pangéespace 412www.galeriepangee.com

Galerie [sas]space 416www.galeriesas.com

Galerie Luzspace 418www.galerieluz.com

Galerie d’art contemporainVisual Voicespace 421www.visualvoicegallery.com

Arprimspace 426www.arprim.org

Centre d’exposition CIRCAspace 444www.circa-art.com

5TH FLOOR

Galerie Roger Bellemare,Galerie Christian Lambertspaces 501 and 502www.rogerbellemare.com

SBC Galerie d’art contemporainspace 507www.sbcgallery.ca

Opticaspace 508www.optica.ca

M du B, F, H & gspace 512

Le 514space 514www.le514.ca

Galerie Joyce Yahoudaspace 516www.joyceyahoudagallery.com

Galerie Trois Pointsspace 520www.galerietroispoints.qc.ca

Galerie Piccini da Todispace 523www.piccinidatodi.com

Galerie Nicolas Robertspace 524www.galerienicolasrobert.com

Galerie Donald Brownespace 528www.galeriedonaldbrowne.com

Les Territoiresspace 527www.lesterritoires.org

Lobthaspace 530http://lobhta.com

Previous residentsGalerie Simon BlaisGalerie PushGalerie Kérozène

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