720 New Prints!

Because I am a crazy, crazy person who doesn't know when to quit, I finished off the semester by making my biggest series yet: an edition of roughly 720 5x7 prints, each totally unique and different from the others.



I'm planning on going back into them with all sorts of drawing and collage materials.  This is definitely the most liberating project I've worked on in a while.  When you have so many of something, there's nothing at stake if you mess one up.

(Above: example of 3 of a kind.  Below: 'Double Nationalism' and 'Pull a Heavy Heart'.)

I say "roughly 720" because I left a few of them together.  I'm especially looking forward to creating more of a narrative within the wider ones.

Thanks again!

The opening of the HIV/AIDS show was also great. Tons of people came out, and (as with the FOFA show, which I sadly have no pictures of), the work was so strong I felt honoured to be included.


MR and Mandrew had a religious experience.

It ended with him serving her head on a platter.


View of the crowd. So much great work to look at!

My two measly paintings. I love them, but everything else was so much more exciting!

Like Miss Mandrew's video, which constantly had a line-up 10 people in to watch it. I had to come back the next day! Look at how thrilled he is with his success.

In fact, here's someone watching it. That's the shortest line of the evening.

So, muchos muchos gracias to all the organizers. I also want to do a shout out to Summer G., who had the great idea to put on a show for all those rejected by the Art Matters festival (that's twice now for me, and I guess two strikes and you're out since I am officially finished my degree now). Le Social liked the show so much they've decided to keep it up for another month. I don't have pictures, but Willy the Bum snapped a few at the opening, and they can be viewed here: http://communitycritique.blogspot.com/2008/04/salon-des-refuss-vernissage-photos.html

Thanks!

The months of March and April were a blur of making art, hanging art, and going to openings. Not that I'm complaining at all - I live for this sort of thing.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the McGill Sexual Assault Centre's show on sexual assault and gender-based violence at Brutopia, and thanks EVEN MORE to the organizers, who worked really hard to put this on and did a great job. 'Fire and Water' is up at Brutopia until May 15th.


It was very exciting to see Hot Topic up in a different place, curated in a different way. 20 portraits went up for the show, featuring people like Dorothy Allison and Leslie Feinberg whose works deal specifically with sexual assault and gender-based violence.


Along with the work that's up for the duration of the show, the Sexual Assault Centre also had these pieces at the opening. They were done by high school students taking part in a workshop about sexual assault, and I have to say, with absolute honesty, that they're some of my favourite works in the show! I don't know what to tell you, I can't get enough of them. I want to hang out every day with the brilliant teenager who decided to put little pink panties on the Calvin Klein man. Heart it!

4 Shows to See

  

 

I have paintings in four shows over the next three weeks. Come on down!

No Man's Land: HIV/AIDS and Waiting
March 31 - April 4, 2008
VAV Gallery, 1395 Renée Levesque West, Montreal QC
(corner Crescent, metro Lucien L'Allier)

Vernissage: Thursday April 3, 6-8pm

Fire and Water (put on by the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill)
April 7 - 21, 2008
Brutopia, 1219 Crescent Street, Montreal QC

Vernissage: Thursday April 10, 7-9pm

Salon des Refusées (for artists rejected by the Art Matters Festival)
April 7 - 24, 2008
Le Social, 1445 Bishop Street, Montreal QC

Vernissage: Saturday April 12, 7-10pm

The Annual Undergraduate Students' Exhibition
April 14 - May 9, 2008
FOFA Gallery, 1515 St. Catherine Street West, Montreal QC

Vernissage: Thursday April 17, 6-8pm

Hope to see you there!

Okay, maybe I could get used to this

I was just messing around with an old matrix before stripping my screen, but I like the results so much more than the print they were from that I'm not going to clean the screen yet. I'm going to keep working on these.

They're BIG too - over 2x2 feet and 2x3 feet, respectively. I've only put up details from the 2x3 one - bugger was way too big to scan.

Moi aussi, Ben Vautier

I can't quite get next to screenprinting; I love the final product but hate the process. Needless to say, a lot of that comes from having to experience the trials and tribulations of a new medium. Because each project is a little less frustrating than the last, I'm going to stick with screenprinting for now. It's something I can see myself keeping up as a side project in the years to come (painting will always be my true love).

Here's my first print, a tribute to Fluxus artist Ben Vautier (Ben doute de tout).

No Man's Land: HIV/AIDS and Waiting

Yay! I'm super excited about the news that two pieces from 'Hot Topic' will be shown in No Man's Land, the annual HIV/AIDS show held at Concordia University.

Marlon Riggs was a prominent gay rights activist and filmmaker who passed away from AIDS related illness in 1994. David Wojnarowicz was a painter and performance artist who was prominent in the New York art scene of the 1980s. Wojnarowicz passed away from AIDS related illness in 1992. Both men were incredibly talented and the world is certainly a dimmer and less creative place without them.

More information on Riggs can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlon_Riggs, and here:
http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Riggs/RiggsIntro.html

Information on Wojnarowicz can be found here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wojnarowicz

The show is on from March 30 - April 5, 2008. The vernissage is on April 3.

VAV Gallery, 1395 Rene Levesque W., Montreal, QC
Visit http://nomanslandmontreal.com for more information.

Welcome to Hot Topic

A new Hot Topic website is coming June 2012!
Stay tuned. For now, here's the archive.

Hot Topic is the way that we rhyme, Hot Topic is the way that we rhyme...

Between 2006 - 2008 Montreal-based artist Kirsten McCrea undertook the task of painting the portrait of every single person named in the Le Tigre song ‘Hot Topic’. With the addition of the members of Le Tigre themselves, the total came to 60 paintings. The goal of the project was to engage in a form of activism that was not critical of dominant culture, but instead celebratory of alternative social movements. The series depicts an informal “who’s who” of feminist icons from the last century, and it is the artist’s hope that these paintings will play a small role in preserving the memory of these influential underground figures. The paintings are exhibited along with a free ‘zine (see above) that includes a short biography of each person, so that the gallery can act as an environment of dialogue and education, rather than as merely a visual space. Hot Topic is shown in traditional galleries and in community spaces alike (in support of organizations such as the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill and V-Day Montreal).

Scroll down to view the series. A short biography of each person can be found in the comments under their page.  Click on the images to see them at high resolution.

Below are some installation shots from the showing held from February 3-15, 2008 at the VAV Gallery at Concordia University in Montreal.

Carol Rama, Eleanor Antin, Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneemann

Gretchen Phillips, Cibo Matto, Leslie Feinberg, Faith Ringgold

Mr. Lady, Laura Cottingham, Mab Segrest, and The Butchies, man