After a busy summer in Montreal and Iceland, I am living and working on Pender Island. I'm currently doing a series of oil paintings, using google earth screenshots as source imagery. I'm also painting outside, whenever possible.
Many of the plein air works I'm doing now will end up in an upcoming show at the Stewart Hall in Pointe-Claire, QC. The show will be called 'Field Recordings' and will feature solo work by Jim Holyoak, Nick Kuepfer and myself.
(click the image below for more)
Second floor, next to the new restaurant. It is part of the permanent collection and will be up for awhile. Very hard to document this one due to the nature of the space. Here are the best photos I have of when it was still in progress. (click on the image for more)
This article landed in the Iceland Monitor. I can't read it, but I'm glad it exists.
Last month, Jim and I worked to the point of eye-twitchery to complete 'Wodwo', a wall drawing for the permanent collection at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. You can find our piece on the east wall next to the new restaurant on the second floor of the museum (the rotunda). Here's a detail
Here are some photos of our completed pyrography work at Parc Bois de Belle-Riveière in Mirabel, QC. Photos by Michel Dubreuil.
For the month of July, Jim Holyoak and I are working on the Sentier d'art 3 in Parc Bois de Belle-Rivière in Mirabel, QC. Using pyrography tools for the first time, we are burning a drawing into the walls of a wooden cabin / refuge. The drawing is growing every day as we live and work in the Parc. We are also collaborating with technician Christine Boudreau to mount about 100 birdhouses around the outside of the cabin and surrounding trees. It our hope that these little houses will be inhabited by chickadees, wood ducks, swallows and squirrels around this time next year.
The cabin is rentable as a refuge for hikers and cross-country skiers. Visitors will sleep under a village of birds and other creatures which call Hibernacula home.
This project is administered by the Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides. Thanks to Jonathan Demers, Sara Savignac and the whole staff!
Photo by Marilyse Goulet
I'm living and working on Pender Island now. I'll be here till the summer working on a series of outdoor paintings from observation. The summer holds projects in the Laurentians and in Iceland, but after that I'll be returning to Pender for the foreseeable future.
Pond Out Front, 48" X 60", Oil on canvas.
I made these and more drawings while paddling through some swampy passages in a canoe.
Last couple days at the Peanut Factory in Edenton, NC. I've been hitting the swamp pretty hard.
From Nov. 5 - Nov. 26, 2015 I'll be the first long term artist-in-residence at "The Peanut Factory" in Edenton North Carolina. This monstrous old building is riding a transition from from factory to warehouse-commercial space to abandoned wreck to artist residency. The founders Julia Townsend and Lincoln Adams have put three hearty years of planning and construction into it between long stints in Dubai. I feel so lucky to be able to work here while it is in this shifting and unsettled state. I'll also be taking my drawing board out in the canoe for plein air swamp drawings. Click below for more images.
Here is a short statement about my time here:
My work comprises drawings, paintings and installations anchored in the realm of landscape. Typically, these landscapes reflect an anxiety I feel about the direction of human impact on the environment. They are imagined worlds of exploitation, abandonment and entropy, and they are often ambitious in scale.
Over the past year, I have switched tracks from the epic and distant to the intimate and near at hand. During my time at the Peanut Factory, I will cultivate a daily practice of observational drawing and painting. Using simple materials—ink, charcoal and watercolor—I will attempt to honestly transcribe what is around me. Through quiet and concentrated gestures, I hope to commemorate the shifting aspirations and nature of the factory.
From October 25 - 30, I worked with Painting MFA students at the Maryland Institute College of Art to create a drawing installation in the Fred Lazarus IV Center's side gallery. It was a whirlwind work made with charcoal and erasers and about 20 people.
I also gave an artist lecture at the Center's auditorium. Details below:
https://fyi.mica.edu/event/matt_shane#.Vj1Jyq6rRR0
Jim and I sat down with Yaniya Lee discuss our collaborative work and lives. Have a listen:
http://arttalksmtl.podbean.com/e/episode-12-matt-shane-and-jim-holyoak/
I'll be participating in this show tonight with collaborative and solo works on paper.
Juste à temps pour le début des fêtes, une partie de la Galerie Donald Browne se transforme en bazar afin de réunir des oeuvres d’art de toute espèce créées par divers artistes et en vente à des prix abordables. Les objets les plus curieux seront juxtaposés à des petites pièces inédites pour former un enchaînement des plus dissonants et étonnants.
Joignez-vous à ce vernissage de nature toute différente qui se tiendra le soir du 4 décembre et durant lequel seront servis gratuitement du lait de poule et des bouchées de saison.
**
Cette foire d'art improvisée se prolongera jusqu’au 20 décembre 2014, du mercredi au samedi durant les heures d’ouverture de la galerie.
______________________________________________
Just in time for the start of the holiday season, part of the Galerie Donald Browne is transformed into a bazaar to bring together artworks of all kinds created by various artists and sold at affordable prices. The most curious objects are juxtaposed with small original pieces in a dissonant and surprising array.
Join us for this opening of a different nature that will be held on the evening of December 4. We will be serving eggnog and seasonal bites.
**
This improvised art fair will continue until December 20, 2014, from Wednesday through Saturday during the opening hours of the gallery.
RAYMONDE APRIL
PAUL BUREAU
SOREL COHEN
LOUIS FORTIER
JÉRÔME HAVRE
JIM HOLYOAK
MARK IGLOLIORTE
VALÉRIE KOLAKIS
SUZY LAKE
MYRIAM LAPLANTE
CHRISTINE MAJOR
JÉRÔME RUBY
ERIC SIMON
ARTISTES INVITÉS | INVITED ARTISTS:
AN SOUBIRAN
OLIVIER GARIÉPY
SONIA HABERSTICH
JENNA MEYERS
MATT SHANE
SARA A. TREMBLAY
Le Soleil featured a kind article about some of the participating artists at this week's Foire en art actuel in Quebec City. See below:
http://www.lapresse.ca/le-soleil/arts-et-spectacles/expositions/201410/11/01-4808550-foire-en-art-actuel-oeuvres-cherchent-acheteurs.php#
More details on the show in the post below.
The second incarnation of our six-way collaborative show will soon take place at Donald Browne Gallery in Montreal's Belgo Building.
SIX GHOSTS
SPELL UNKNOWN
ALPHABET
Du 18 septembre au 25 octobre | From September 18 to October 25, 2014
*Vernissage* le 18 septembre, à 17 h | *Opening* September 18, at 5 pm
La Galerie Donald Browne présente SIX GHOSTS SPELL UNKNOWN ALPHABET, une exposition réunissant les dessins et les impressions de Jim Holyoak et Matt Shane (Montréal), Cathrine Dahl et Ørjan Aas (Trondheim), Ola Jonsrud (Oslo) et Gowara Minsa (Berlin/Bergen).
Six Ghosts Spell Unknown Alphabet est un récit transcontinental composé par six artistes norvégiens et canadiens. L’exposition est à la fois une installation de groupe et un travail de collaboration dans lequel des oeuvres sur papier ont été réalisées à plusieurs mains, échangées entre les artistes par voie postale depuis les villes de Trondheim, La Haye, l'île Saltspring, Montréal, Toronto, Hønefoss et Berlin. Sitôt rassemblés, ces dessins de différentes échelles forment une séquence indicible et épèlent l’alphabet partagé - mais méconnu - des artistes.
Le titre «Six Ghosts Spell Unknown Alphabet» tire son origine de la première phrase issue d’un jeu de cadavre exquis auquel se sont livrés Catherine Dahl et Jim Holyoak. Elle renvoie incidemment à la part de hasard et à la perte d’individualité dans la création collaborative, de même qu'au dessin comme forme de langage commun non parlé. Pour ce projet, les artistes ont exploré les détours et les perversions inattendues qu’impose la collaboration aux conduites et manières de faire individuelles. Les dessins deviennent en ce sens une documentation visuelle des relations instaurées et des conditions de production, brouillant les frontières entre l’art et la vie. La rencontre de ces différentes manières de dessiner suggère d'elle-même un parallèle avec le domaine de la musique, plus précisément avec cette capacité qu'ont les musiciens d'improviser et de s'harmoniser pour jouer le même morceau, pour créer une cacophonie ou encore pour entamer une conversation.
Galerie Donald Browne presents SIX GHOSTS SPELL UNKNOWN ALPHABET,featuring drawings and prints by Jim Holyoak and Matt Shane (Montréal), Cathrine Dahl and Ørjan Aas (Trondheim), Ola Jonsrud (Oslo) and Gowara Minsa (Berlin/Bergen).
Six Ghosts Spell Unknown Alphabet is a transcontinental storytelling project between six artists from Norway and Canada. The exhibition is a hybrid between a group show and a collaborative project, in which all the artists made paper-based works together, exchanged by mail amongst themselves in Trondheim, The Hague, Salt Spring Island, Montréal, Toronto, Hønefoss and Berlin. Added up in yet untold sequence, these drawings of varying scales spell out the artists’ shared, but unknown alphabet.
The title 'Six ghosts spell unknown alphabet' originated from the first sentence of a game of Exquisite Corpse played between Catherine Dahl and Jim Holyoak. It describes inadvertently the role of chance and lost individuality in collaborative creation, as well as drawing as a common but non-spoken language. The artists explore the unexpected detours and perversions that collaboration throws into individual patterns of art making. The drawings become a visual documentation of relationships and conditions, blurring the seams between art and life. The different ways of drawing parallel music; how musicians improvise and harmonize to play the same song, to create a cacophony… or a conversation.
Cliquez ici pour un avant-goût de l'exposition.
Click here for a preview of the exhibition.
Liens vers les sites Internet des artistes | Links to the artists' websites
Jim Holyoak
Matt Shane
Gowara Minsa
Ola Johnsrud
Cathrine Dahl & Ørjan Aas
372 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, ch. 528
Montréal, Québec, Canada H3B 1A2
tel. 514.380.3221
www.galeriedonaldbrowne.com
info@galeriedonaldbrowne.com
Working on this in the studio right now..
The below article appeared in Klassekampen, Norway's national newspaper, on Wednesday, July 30, 2014. Written by Tommy Olsson.
I can't read it, but maybe you can?
