The new exhibition Nicolas Party: L’heure mauve at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts by Swiss artist Nicolas Party is a sumptuous, surrealist experience. Party is not only the artists but also took on that role of curator and exhibition designer. The exhibition features new works by Party as well as 50 artworks and chairs selected from the Museum’s collection and large pastel murals by Party in several of the room. The exhibition is on until October 16, 2022 and is not to be missed.
The National Gallery of Canada has reopened after the most recent pandemic lockdown with a new exhibition of Rembrandt and a lofty new vision for its future that aims to connect to more diverse voices and audiences through critical conversations in art. In this vain they have taken what was slated to be a pretty standard Rembrandt exhibition and infused it with Black and Indigenous voices and artists that broaden the scope of the exhibition to reflect on the time period that Rembrandt lived in and how it connects to colonization and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The exhibition runs until September 6th so there are still a few more weeks to see it!
Now more than ever it’s important to support your local arts institutions. Covid-19 has had a major impact on the tourist industry and the arts. When the National Gallery of Canada reopened in July I visited and it was so nice to be back at one of my favourite places. With limited capacity and mandatory mask wearing I felt very safe visiting. During normal times I find it easy to visit the NGC without crowds and now it’s even less busy. If you have the chance please go out and support your local arts institutions (as long as you feel safe doing so and don’t have any symptoms of course). Also be sure to check the National Gallery of Canada’s website for up-to-date information about opening hours and regulations. Continue reading for some photos of the beautiful empty gallery spaces.
Àbadakone|Continuous Fire|Feu continuel at the National Gallery of Canada had ended after an amazing (an extended run thanks to Covid). This amazing exhibition featuring the work of more than 70 international contemporary Indigenous artists from 16 countires is one of those exhibitions that makes the National Gallery of Canada a special institution. Even though this exhibition is over I wanted to share some images of it.
On our way home from a little weekend trip to northern Québec we decide to take a little detour to pass through Québec City to see the exhibition Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. I had hoped to write a little review of this exhibition but instead I’m going to share my experience of visiting a blockbuster exhibition in the time of Covid-19.
A little while has past since I saw the Anthropocene exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario – AGO in Toronto, and it’s given me some time to reflect. Since then I’ve even gone back to the National Gallery of Canada to see their iteration of the exhibition again, read my review here! It’s hard not to compare and contrast the two approaches to the exhibition and its design since I studied curating in university so now going to exhibitions I find it really hard not to critic everything from wall colour, text panels and lighting to the overarching curatorial idea and artworks themselves. But it’s also rare that you get to see essentially the same exhibit done in two different ways.
Anthropocene is a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. It includes work by renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky and Emmy award-winning documentary filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier. The exhibition “explore the impact of human activity on Earth through photography, film installations and interactive technologies.” The exhibition runs until February 24th, 2019. Its companion exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto runs until January 6th, 2019, which will be part 2 of my review that you can read here!
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is presenting the first major Canadian retrospective of the work of Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976), the American 20th century artist known for putting art in motion with his mobiles. Alexander Calder: Radical Inventor is on now at the MMFA until February 24th, 2019.
In April of this year I visited Arizona to hike the Grand Canyon. We ended up flying into Phoenix and then drove up to the Grand Canyon but before heading up to Northern Arizona for our hike we spent a couple days visiting Phoenix. This isn’t really a complete travel guide as it doesn’t include any food but it’s a pretty good list of things to do while in Phoenix.
Rachel Somewhere… 