The Pink Rider has come to Montreal. She parks her horse on the Birks Building and surveys the city. And she is not alone. Compost Girl dances above the rhubarb and does a sort of astral projection, bringing the natural beauty of the country to bear on the city where people do not compost enough. It sounds like the setup for an eco-superhero movie, but these figures actually belong to a series of works by print artist Bernice Sorge.

The exhibit Where is Here? The Urban Trace marks the culmination of a month-long residency program sponsored by the English-Language Arts Network that aims to build links between Montreal and artists in the Eastern Townships. Having spent more than two decades in what Sorge terms “the green zone” of Dunham, Québec, she has focused most of her artistic efforts on printmaking and creating plates out of the plants she finds near her home. Leaves figure prominently and represent the tympanums “through which we breathe and perhaps through which we hear the celestial symphony, in the rustling of the leaves,” says the artist’s statement.

Now take a woman who communes artistically with nature and put her in the city. What changes? For one, her gathering methods. Sorge is used to walking outside and collecting the natural refuse that’s lying around to use in her work, but she quickly realized that the garbage in the city is far too dirty for that. Not only did this give rise to Compost Girl ready to right our rubbish wrongs, but it also caused Sorge to forage for images of the city that she could digitally imprint on. The colourful Urban Trace pictures are the result. The artist explored new techniques in digital manipulation to create layers of meaning that assert a natural presence onto the manufactured landscape.

Sorge manages to retain her printmaking aesthetic while using digital techniques. Familiar nature patterns embellished with bright colours are superimposed onto the brick and mortar town while the shadow figures transform into a new kind of force, transcending their role as mere shadows in the Body and Soil photos (save for the black and white Body and Soil #4 Alchemical where the shadow and rhubarb leaves merge and come across as a body outline at a crime scene).

The Pink Rider can also be seen in some copper etchings that are on display. This symbol has been part of Sorge’s artistic lexicon ever since encountering Kadinsky’s Blue Rider during a trip in 2008 to Munich, Germany. Whereas Kadinsky’s horseman is a symbol of revolution in modern art, Sorge’s figure is dedicated to those “who don’t have a voice, who fear to speak or fear to create with what is inside them.” Sometimes positioned with the rider’s head facing in the opposite direction of the horse, the Pink Rider embodies the tension between action and inaction.

It’s clear that the artist’s comfort zone lies outside the city limits, but her engagement with the metropolis has produced the more complex and vibrant works in her show. It may not serve as a compelling reason to move, but it offers good motivation to step outside of one’s accustomed boundaries every now and then.

Where is Here? The Urban Trace runs until June 26 at the Visual Voice Art Gallery, 372 Ste-Catherine West, #421. For more information see www.visualvoicegallery.com.

Françoise Sullivan has been producing art in one form or another for more than six decades. She signed the Refus global manifesto in 1948, helped establish modern dance in Québec, is an accomplished sculptor and painter, and was named a member of the Order of Canada. Sullivan (2010), an entry in this year’s Festival international du film sur l’art competition, meets up with the artist in her studio to discuss art and watch her at work.

Directed by Françoise Dugré, the film opens up with Sullivan standing near a chair, preparing. A series of outdoor shots and close-ups inside show the artist mixing paint, a dripping faucet, parts of a sculpture and other things that are lying around the studio. For a while the only sounds you hear are of the paint brush at work. This unhurried and steady pace sets the tone for the rest of the movie. In a relaxed and quiet environment, the audience observes the artist as she paints and contemplates her canvases. Then the dancers arrive.

The boot stomping of Ginette Boutin and Daniel Soulières thunders through the calm atmosphere of the studio. They are piecing together one of Sullivan’s choreographies that was created in 1980, À tout prendre, for a performance in Toronto. The dancers work from a video recording of the routine and get Sullivan’s input on the movements. Artist Rober Racine joins them at one point to watch the video.

This isn’t a documentary about Sullivan’s entire life and it doesn’t cover her whole body of work. She talks mostly about painting and dancing and the only artworks that are shown are the ones in her studio. People unfamiliar with the artist will learn more about her significant contributions to art by reading the program’s write up than they will by watching the movie. This film is a candid portrait of the artist now, one that offers viewers a chance to hear her reflect on some aspects of her career and on art in general.

Sullivan speaks plainly and thoughtfully about art. Her discussion of the monochromatic style of painting that she moved to in the 1980s and the link she makes between dancing and painting offer some interesting insight into her work. There are a few too many quiet segments in the film – more than are necessary to demonstrate the artist’s contemplative approach to her art. In those intervals, the camera will often cut away to random shots around the studio that don’t seem to serve any purpose and feel a bit like filler.

Given Sullivan’s long and distinguished artistic career, it would have been nice to hear her speak more about her experiences. However, the film is but a snapshot that captures one part of her continually evolving artistic trajectory and despite some minor shortcomings the documentary offers a clear picture of the artist now, one that any fan will be interested in seeing.

Sullivan opens at FIFA today at 18h30 at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. For more information check out the FIFA site.

A nocturnal tradition in Montreal, Nuit Blanche returns this Saturday for its 7th edition. From 6 pm until 3 am, art lovers can enjoy perusing the 10 venues of Art Souterrain, which will host paintings, videos, photographs, performances, installations and artists. With 104 projects spread across 4 km in the underground, audiences will encounter a rich and varied plethora of art. Here’s just a small sampling of what you will see along your journey beneath the city.

Jocelyn Michel will be showing three new photographs from his “Admission” project featuring Pierre-Luc Brillant, Luc Picard, Claude Legault, Guylaine Tremblay and Antoine L’Écuyer. Michel’s heavily staged images evoke narratives that are humorous, sarcastic, dark and peaceful. Each photographic mis-en-scène creates a little world unto itself and uses brilliant, saturated colours that accentuate its cinematic style. Michel uses props, layering and other post-production techniques to craft his inspired images. He will be at the show in Zone 3 (Palais des congrès de Montréal) from 8 – 10 pm on Saturday.

Also present in Zone 3 is Michael A. Robinson who will be exhibiting a large-scale sculpture that makes reference to the many “comings and goings” of the Palais as a way of commenting on the “speed of contemporary urban life.” His neuronal, starburst compositions show as much balance as they do outward unsteadiness. Like trees that continuously branch out, his sculptures seek no specific goal other than extension. Robinson is scheduled to be at Palais des congrès from 7 – 10 pm.

If you didn’t catch 2Fik’s show at Galerie SAS in the fall, you missed out. Playful, poignant and well-produced, this photographer’s exploration of identity and integration takes him through a myriad of personalities – literally – that allow him to examine the tension that exists between religion and modern society, the individual and social culture, and the paradoxes that arise within self that tries to encompass all these things. A French-born Moroccan-Canadian gay man who was raised in a Muslim family, 2Fik considers the many ways in which we parse our existence in vibrant photographs that are as epic as they are humorous. He will be present in Zone 10 (Complexe Les Ailes) from 10 pm to 3 am.
For a slightly more engaging experience, people in Zone 4 (Centre de Commerce Mondial) are invited to choose one of Jaber Lutfi’s paintings and carry it around for one minute so that others can be introduced to it. While the task may seem easy, his paintings have a grim and heavy style that may evoke aversion before understanding. His iconoclastic, fabling images create vivid and startling mythological tableaux. If you want to learn more about these fantastical narratives, Lutfi will be around between 6 pm and 3 am.
There’s a lot to see and a lot of ground to cover, so it’s a good thing the STM is open all night long. The chance to meet the artists and ask them about their work offers viewers an excellent opportunity to engage in more depth the art on display. Sleep is for the week – spend this Saturday night in the underground, with art.

Check out the Nuit Blanche site for more information on Montreal’s sleepless night.

Benjamin “Von Wong” is a dreamer. He sees more than what’s in front of him and is inspired by everything around him. His portraits skate the lines around surrealism, fantasy, gothic couture and robust masculinity. His first exhibit Von Wong, now showing at Café Pi, comprises 41 photos whose subject matter includes such things as firemen, a ballerina, himself and pumpkins.

The steampunk aesthetic of Curve Me (2009) bares itself out in a dirty, yellow excavator that has a woman in a dirty, yellow dress and gold shoes standing in the scoop, her back arched as she stretches her arms out to reach the machine’s arm. The vibrant foreground of machinery is set against a darkened backdrop of trees, power lines and some sort of contraption that looms not too far away.

The enchanting Blue Girls – Lolita Fantasies (2009) has an urban fairy tale feel. Two girls in Victorian-style dresses stand under a white parasol at night looking up at a brick wall that has the entrance to an alley way painted on it. Pieces of newspaper fall from the sky.

The self portrait Disagreements between the heart and mind (2009) shows Von Wong in a white turtle neck with his head despondently turned to the side while a screaming, disembodied head tries to escape his shirt.

A mining engineer by day, Von Wong started off photographing the stars at night. He gradually began investing in better cameras and expanding his vision. His work isn’t limited to surrealistic portraiture either. The brash machismo in the firemen and b-boy series stand in stark contrast to the graceful images of the ballerina or the grand shot of the violinist on the stoop. And then there’s the series of action pics where people slice through pumpkins with a sword.

The variety of styles and subjects owes itself to Von Wong’s improvisational approach. He doesn’t rigidly plan his shoots in advance. He draws inspiration from his surroundings and in collaborating with his models. He prefers outdoor shoots and what he can’t find on location he can always Photoshop in later.

You can see the fluctuations in the artist’s growth. The composition of some images strikes an excellent balance between space, contrast and movement, whereas others lack the same finesse. The special effects used to create the surreal and supernatural images don’t always blend perfectly into the shot, but when they do the results are beautiful.

Von Wong’s images ooze narrative. They are inventive, playful and seek to stir the imagination. He’s not afraid of pursuing grandiose moments and his ambition often results in a compelling portrait.

Café Pi is located in the Plateau at 4127 St. Laurent Blvd. This chess hub has been supporting local artists for a long time and is open every day from 10 am until midnight. The photo exhibit runs until February 20th and if you are unable to make it, check out Von Wong’s portfolio online (scroll down and you can browse most of the photos that are in the show in the portfolio section, though they look even better in person).

The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal is busy setting up for the winter’s major exhibitions (Marcel Dzama, Etienne Zack and Luanne Martineau) that open on February 4th. Some rooms are closed to the public in preparation for the shows, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some great art to see now. Riopelle, Anselm Kiefer and David Altmejd are just a few of the artists with major works on display through April 5.

At the bottom of the stairs, inside the small room that is the Info Gallery, you will find some very compelling contrasting artworks. Two watercolours and one oil on canvas by Riopelle hang on the far wall. Sans titre (1946 and 1947) have black ink lines running all across it and the watercolour pigments are applied in block strokes similar to the oil painting Sans titre (1949). In comparison, the watercolours seem rigid and restrained. The oil not only allows for a more richly textured and three-dimensionally emerging image, but it also allows the colours to overlie and merge in ways the watercolours cannot. Turn around and you will see something similar in the Paul-Émile Borduas paintings.

Upstairs, Cubes, Blocks and Other Spaces showcases many artists who tackle the city, its structures and the activities that occur within it. Painting, sculpture, video and photography are used to explore “the underlying form which this everyday reality can take.”

Bill Woodrow’s Parrot Fashion (1984) is the first thing that grabs your attention. With an outboard boat motor for a base, a painted car hood mounted vertically on top and a parrot perched on the hood, this sculpture reconstitutes items in a new and striking form. László Moholo-Nagy’s silver prints (1926-1927) do the same thing in a series of photo montages. It takes images from various sources and recombines them in a surrealist fashion that plays with space and narrative, and sometimes reminds you of Monty Python’s Flying Circus animations.

Serge Tousignant’s clever Hommage à Magaritte (1970-1974) plays with optics. Three strips are pasted to the wall. A black strip runs along the bottom while a green and a red strip divide the space over top of it. An easel stands with a mirror almost in the middle. As you walk by the mirror, you will notice that the red strip appears to turn green as you pass by. Even more entertaining is Fischli & Weiss’s Der Lauf der Dinge [“The Way Things Go”] (1987), a 30-minute film that shows a long, causal chain of events using everyday objects that is similar to a Rube Goldberg machine.

On the same floor, you will find the Major Gifts exhibit. David Altmejd’s Le Dentiste (2008) is a towering sculpture of mirror, teeth and quail eggs. The mirror is smashed in places with teeth protruding to give it a mouth-like appearance. Quail eggs sit behind glass in small cubes that recess into the sculpture. Altmejd likes to make works that are “shiver-inducing,” so you’ll have to see how this one resonates with your mental portrait of dentists.

Anselm Kiefer’s Karfunkelfee (1990) and Die Frauen der Antike ["Women of Antiquity"] (1999) are outstanding. These large-scale works incorporate paints, resins, sunflowers, branches, clothing, seeds and various other media. These works evoke feelings of neglect and loss as they confront humanity’s violent and sombre past.

Yes, you are probably going to hold out until tomorrow to see the new shows. It’s a good strategy. Just don’t forget to check out the other works that are hanging around. They’re quite good.

The exhibits run until April 5th and the museum is open Tuesday through Sunday. For more information consult the MACM site.

Photo: Kiefer’s Die Frauen der Antike.

You can’t help but notice Melanie Authier’s vivid pinks and magentas that are on the far right when you enter the latest exhibit, The Phoenix Art: The Renewed Life of Contemporary Painting, at Galerie Simon Blais. Walk around the corner and you will quickly feel the onslaught of Jeremy Hof’s vibrant discs. Saunter down the corridor at the back and you can savour the aurora borealis colour scheme in Melanie Rocan’s Traine. This is a look into contemporary painting today and the view is bright.

Martin Golland’s architectural paintings pit vibrant colour palettes against dramatic angles that can make banal views seem majestic. Signal to Signal situates the viewer at the bottom of a staircase looking steeply up at a three verandas stacked in a tapering fashion on top of one another, a point of view that evokes images of the Imperial Palaces in China. An orange sky envelops the stately white building that is punctuated by bright blues and yellows, which add balance and depth.

Rocan’s Gone to Flowers also uses a dramatic sky to offset her field of blossoms and disembodied heads. These anonymous faces, whose eyes are covered by the heads of flowers, lurk behind and within the plants in a very inconspicuous fashion. While the flora is painted brightly, the sky is very sombre with greyish blues. First impressions may be that the celestial sphere belies the earthly setting, but the discovery of the heads certainly changes the tone of the piece.

One of the more interesting explorations in materials on display is Mark Igloliorte’s series of oil paintings on Plexiglas. Seven Posed with Boat shows the silhouettes of figures paddling in long kayaks. These blue and grey works have an added fog effect that results from the semi-translucence of the cloudy polymer seeping through the thin layers of paint. The various studies also displayed are smaller, greyer and the surface paint is less uniform, which gives them even more of a ghostly effect.

Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline’s Rot Samba and Wreath are departures from the dramatic hues seen in many of the other works. His paintings have a more subdued character. They look like neglected works from the Renaissance. A certain progress of decay has set in and you can’t make out what exactly is represented in the paintings, but you try. You end up playing a puzzle game without all the pieces.

There are 10 Canadian artists displaying more than 20 artworks that were created specifically for this show. The exhibit was curated by Robert Enright (art critic and editor-at-large of Border Crossing) and it aims to demonstrate that “painting is not dead,” but flourishing. The variety of techniques, engaging styles and attention-grabbing paints take viewers on an electrifying tour of contemporary painting, one that will assure you of the vivacious state of the art.

The exhibit runs until December 24 at Galerie Simon Blais, 5420 St. Laurent Blvd., Suite 100. The gallery is open from 10 am to 6 pm.

“One hundred women are not worth a single testicle.” – Confucius

This epithet, along with about a dozen others, is part of a 2009 poster created by the Guerrilla Girls that focuses on the history of hate speech against women and feminism, and includes quips from the likes of Frank Sinatra, Napoleon and Picasso. The poster is on display at the Troubler le repos/Disturbing the Peace exhibit at the Galerie de l’UQAM.

More than 2,500 of these posters will be displayed in public spaces and institutions around Montreal. The artwork commemorates the 20th anniversary of the l’École Polytechnique massacre, where a man who claimed to be “fighting feminism” entered the school and shot 28 people, killing 14 women. The poster underscores the pervasiveness of misogyny and the need to take the problem seriously.

The exhibit comprises one video installation and 19 posters that span the collective’s 24 years of on-going activism. The Guerrilla Girls is a cooperative group of feminists and artists who adopt the pseudonyms of dead female artists (except for the member who goes by the name GG1), wear gorilla masks and expose the sexism and racism that are endemic to politics and the art world by using humourous and poignant culture jamming tactics.

For example, Homeland Terror Alert System for Women (2003) satirizes the colour-coded scheme the Bush administration invented to track the threat of terrorism in the US. The chart has been transformed into a list of things the government has done to erode women’s rights, including the president’s refusal to sign the international treaty on discrimination against women and the appointment of a man to the FDA who believes that prayer is the best treatment for PMS.

Their poster Do Women Have to be Naked to Get Into the Met. Museum? (1989) targeted the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, highlighting the gross under-representation of female artists in its collection. “Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.” In 2005, they updated the poster’s facts to reveal that even less women artists (3%) are now found in the Met’s Modern Art sections.

Guerrilla Girls’ Pop Quiz (1990) asks: “Q. If February is Black History Month and March is Women’s History Month, what happens the rest of the year? A. Discrimination.” The group claims that assigning commemorative months to social issues is a new form of tokenism, a ploy that merely gives the illusion of inclusive practices. “This poster is a favourite on university campuses where African Americans and women always get art shows in February and March.”

These masked female avengers are not just playing a numbers game; they want substantive equality. By pointing out the large disparities in representation and the problematic attitudes of government and popular culture, the Guerrilla Girls are demonstrating that discrimination is still very much a systemic problem, even in the arts.

They call themselves the Conscience of the Art World and they’ll admit to how pretentious that is, but as they point out, every profession needs to examine itself. And if art institutions won’t do it themselves, then the Guerrillas will do it for them.

The exhibit runs until December 19 and is located at 1400 Berri, room J-R120. Open Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 6 pm. For more details, check out the Galerie de l’UQAM website.

Beautiful is not the first word that pops into most people’s mind when they think about the circulatory system, but after seeing Arteries of the Trunk on display at Bodies: The Exhibition (Centre d’Exposition de Montréal, Eaton Centre), many will think it’s apt. Meticulously dissected and preserved, this specimen shows the many blood vessels that are present in a person’s mid-section. Despite not having any bones or connective tissue, the torso shape is unmistakeable in this dazzling and dangling array of red branches.

The exhibit is comprised of several rooms and largely organized by system: skeletal, muscular, respiratory, etc. Some pieces are kept under glass and often have explanatory placards, while others are stand-alone figures that have no barrier between them and the viewer.

The show is famous for its full-body models that have been placed in action poses. The Montreal installation has ones that are kicking a soccer ball, diving for a volleyball and playing tennis. You can see the many muscles, tendons and bones tensed in position and some sections of the exterior muscle wall are removed to give a window into what’s going on closer to the body’s core.

There are also many interesting side-by-side comparisons to see, such as a whale scapula versus a human one, normal versus enlarged spleen and a healthy lung versus a smoker’s lung (there’s even a separate case where you can throw out your cigarette packs if this last example should prompt a change in habits). Stunning sagittal body cross-sections can also be seen throughout the show. These glassy slices are reminiscent of geodes and do a remarkable job of showing the relative positions of the body’s organs as well as demonstrating how blood diffuses in the brain during a stroke.

The walls are covered with many interesting facts: Babies have 300 bones and adults have 206; the brain requires 20% of the body’s total blood supply; after conception, everyone spends one half-hour as a single cell. And for those who are a little bit adventurous, there is a Touch Station where you can hold a real specimen of a lung, liver or the like.

The show has received mixed reviews from audiences worldwide. It has been called creepy, gross and indecent. Some cities have closed or banned the exhibit entirely. But the show doesn’t appear to be the macabre money grab that some have described. The displays are presented in a manner that seeks to educate people about their bodies and is based on a “to see it is to know” principle, which the exhibit points out has been a driving force in the history of anatomy.

And seeing really is astonishing in certain cases. The circulatory system display employs a darker lighting scheme that makes the blue and white Bronchial Tree and Pulmonary Arteries really stand out and look like coral. Seeing the many muscles of the foot might make you rethink wearing bad shoes. Plus, the amount of intestines we manage to pack inside our abdomen is really impressive.

This up close and personal look at what lies beneath our skin may not appeal to some, but for those who are interested, it is an incredible opportunity to get to know what is pulsing beneath the surface.

The exhibit runs until January 15. Open Monday to Wednesday, 10 am to 9 pm, Thursday to Sunday, 9 am to 10 pm. For more details and online ticket ordering, visit the site.

Stealer of souls and fodder of the paparazzi, the photograph has had a huge impact on our lives. From advertising and ID cards to family portraits and crime scene pictures, there’s no denying its usefulness. As a fine art form, photography continues to evolve as a dynamic medium. This is nowhere better illustrated than in the 11th presentation of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal.

This year’s guest curator is Gaëlle Morel, an art historian and freelance curator who earned a doctorate in the history of contemporary art from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her guiding theme for this year’s show revolves around the mechanics and staging of photography. “Enlargement and monumentalization of prints, slide projection, in situ conception, the making of objects and machines, visual and audio mise-en-scène – for each approach there is a corresponding pragmatic use of display techniques that determines the form and meaning of the images shown.”

You can expect to see photos presented in a number of interesting ways. Kutlug Ataman’s video installation situates two adjacent screens, both of which project the image of Nese Yasin. These testifying portraits recount Yasin’s experience of the conflict between the southern and northern parts of the Cyprus. Jim Campbell uses LED grids behind images and semi-opaque surfaces to create ghostly silhouettes of pedestrians and cars going by. Jeff Guess’s From Hand to Mouth is a 22-metre long photographic series that is hung in a panoramic circle from the ceiling of a darkened room. And on the corner of Ottawa St. and Duke St. you can see Michael Flomen’s illuminated billboard, The Blue Flyer II, that has captured the twinkling of fireflies at night on photosensitive paper.

Some of the exhibits fail to transcend their mode of presentation. Pavel Pavlov’s Every Bit of Landscape Beyond the Cloverleaf Interchange (Frankfurter Kreuz, Frankfurt, Germany) video records the artist driving round and round the highway traffic junction. Four screens surround the viewer and present four views from inside the car. One points towards the front windshield, two out the side windows and one looks out the rear windshield. When the car has completed a loop of the roundabout, the cameras turn 90 degrees clockwise and the drive begins again. This is supposed to transform the interchange into a “metaphor that spins in a void,” but the small screens that sit almost on the ground make it hard to immerse oneself in the images. It just feels like watching someone banally cruising around in their car.

While it may seem that technology and staging have overwhelmed the images in the show, the ubiquitous nature of photos and our varied relations to them merit examination. Not only are the subjects of the pictures important to understanding their significance, but the ways in which we consume the shots are too. After all, seeing your friend’s photo plastered in a news broadcast is a lot different than seeing it in a photo album.

Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal continues through Oct. 11 at various venues across the city. For more information on the exhibits and other activities taking place, check out the event website where you can download the complete programme.

Muddy, confusing and ominous, the war images in Amy-Claire Huestis’s latest exhibit Landscape with Bombers are an examination of the intrusion of battle on the pastoral. These are not the fields where generals clash or trenches are yet to be dug; this is where the forces of combat push back the barriers of common life to make room for warfare. It is a look at calamity in the making.

Watercolour is a medium often used to depict delicate images, such as flowers, water and winter, where rich but diffuse colours are required. The transparent effects can yield the light and airy results that are required, say, in the wings of a butterfly or on the petals of an orchid. Or it can make manifest the texture in snow without adding too much weight to the shading. In contrast, Huestis takes watercolours and creates thick and muddy landscapes that are heavy and full of turmoil. Landscape with Bombers uses browns and red clay-like hues interspersed with a bit of grey to capture a harried view of the situation portrayed.

The show’s namesake was created specifically for the Battat Contemporary space. It measures 90 x 425 inches and spans two walls. The large scale and partial enclosure created by the walls add an epic element to the painting. To the left is a forest filled with rocks and trees. In the middle a large bomber plane appears to be crashing. To the right, further away in the sky, more bombers are flying and spitting out their ammo while a figure on the ground has picked up a dog. It is a piece that “investigates the tension between bucolic landscape scenery and ominous signs of warfare and impending conflict.”

Huestis cites Francisco Goya as one of her influences and no doubt his Disasters of War series, which depicts the ugly and inglorious side of the struggle that he witnessed when Napoleon’s army invaded Spain in 1808, had an impact. However, unlike Goya whose figures have faces that are torn with emotion and horror, Huestis’s figures don’t have distinct expressions or facial features. They don’t emote or engage in any sweeping gestures. Rather, they carry the dead; they pick up the dog and they keep going. There’s almost a desperate apathy to these people as they trudge along.

There are also some smaller watercolour studies of various parts of Landscape and other images of war, a few pieces done with white chalk on black paper and a number of sketches on display. The ability of the artist to render images that are both sparse and frenetic as well as dense and discerning make her works very engaging. It can take a few moments before you realize what you’re looking at, and this effect adds to the feelings of disorder and panic.

Landscape has a nostalgic feel because of the WWI bombers represented in it, but it is also relevant to the conflicts of today. In addition to the bloody horrors that war results in, there is also the displacement of people and ways of life. The simple beauty of rural existence cannot contend with the onslaught of warfare and it is to this moment of conflict that Huestis takes us. A great panoramic to ponder.

Landscape with Bombers runs through October 24 at Battat Contemporary, 7245 Alexandra St., Suite 100. The gallery is open 12-6 Tuesday through Friday and from 12-5 on Saturdays. For more information check the Battat Contemporary site.

Chagall, Warhol and Picasso are some of the names mentioned by critics when discussing the works of Romero Britto. His cubist, pop art style evokes a jubilant playfulness with its bright colours, simple lines and geometrical shapes. Dismissed by some as too commercial, his works are unapologetically optimistic and full of warmth. He arrives in Montreal this week to take part in the Cedars Cancer Heroes Night with Lance Armstrong in Mont Tremblant.

Born in Brazil and raised by a single mother, Britto explains that art helped him cope with the world around him: “Growing up as a child my world was a little bit of chaos; my mother had 9 children; and my art was a way for me to express myself, to control my thoughts so I always get inspired by beautiful things around me, the non-chaotic.”

The attempt to contain chaos is apparent in his works. The heavy, black lines may be rigid and orderly, but the paint and patterns that fill them add a lot of commotion to the pictures.

He got his big break in 1989 when Absolut Vodka commissioned him to design a bottle label for one of their campaigns. He has since been hired by companies such as Pepsi, BMW, Evian, Volvo and Disney to produce bright and breezy designs. His works have appeared on various items, including laptops, watches, cars and luggage, to name a few. Because of this, some say that he is more of a “brilliant commercial designer” than a real artist. Or perhaps it is because he reportedly makes $12 million a year. Either way it seems wrong to discount an artist because of his success. Just because it sells, doesn’t mean it’s not art.

Where Britto’s art does fall short is substance. His works are cute and kitschy, but their flash-in-the-pan impact is fleeting. They lack Chagall’s complex imagery, Warhol’s conceptual wit and Picasso’s depth. Whether these elements are important to his artistic goals is up for grabs. In correspondence, he said that making people feel happy is one of the greatest things that he can do with his art and I doubt that many people would deny the cheeriness inherent in his work.

Britto is no stranger to Montreal. In fact, one of his biggest collectors lives here, Guy Laliberté, whom he often visits when travelling in Canada. Britto teamed up with Cirque du Soleil in 2007 to deliver a pre-game show performance at the Super Bowl in Florida, where Britto is a resident. The Cirque’s performers acted as a “living, breathing canvas” that was set to music by Louie Vega.

Also attending the event this evening are ex-Montreal Canadiens Saku Koivu and Jean Béliveau, both of whom are cancer survivors. During the evening, one of Britto’s portraits will be auctioned off in support of the Cedars Cancer Institute and the McGill University Health Centre’s Best Care for Life Campaign.

Cedars Cancer Heroes Night with Lance Armstrong and Friends (including Rufus Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle) will be held at Casino de Mont-Tremblant, 1000 Chemin des Voyageurs, Mont-Tremblant, Québec..

A stroll through St. Henri’s former industrial district may not bring to mind visions of France, but it is home to the Parisian Laundry art gallery and their latest exhibit, Summertime in Paris. This group show has a medley of works on display from both up-and-coming and established artists. You’ll be able to lose yourself in the mystical landscapes of Rick Leong and ponder the abstractions of Jennifer Lefort. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Janet Werner is known for her portraits of women. Her paintings tend to convey a romantic feminine ideal. Make-up, blouses and pearls are often seen. Long hair is swept away from the face with headbands, barrettes and ponytails, or it is left hanging down in soft curls. The painting style is chunky in its application of colour and the faces articulate a cold or forlorn expression. The portraits emanate a sense of loss that juxtaposes keenly with the idyllic beauty of them. While kitsch is sometimes used to describe her work, the paintings are not superficial in the ways that the word suggests. Peach Lips and Lady in a Headdress are two excellent pieces displayed in the exhibit.

Also presenting a series of portraits is Alex Da Corte. His colour photographs are part of an on-going project called “Activities.” He invites strangers to perform a simple task using a variety of props that include food, balloons and make-up. In Activity #9 – stuffing strawberries in your mouth, you see a headshot of a guy with numerous strawberries shoved into his mouth. Activity #21 –glitter face shows another a guy who has had silver glitter thrown all over his face. These aptly named works are about catching someone in a moment of “letting go.”

Nine artists are represented in Summertime in Paris, a seasonally recurring exhibit at the gallery. There is no obvious theme linking the works together and the presentation is also kind of generic. Works are mounted in a single row along two facing walls and there are some nearby chairs for visitors to sit in. Parisian Laundry is a dynamic gallery space that is often used very well, but it seemed a little flat this time.