Art in Montreal

  This week it is several different shows from Pictura . Louis-Philippe Côté ’s La chambre aux miroirs at Simon Blais consists of two quite different bodies of work. This is a strategy that seems to be in keeping with his general practice over the past few years. To one side are these hazy, warm-toned canvases that seem packed with art historical allusions and are loosely divided in patterns that suggest frames within frames. As such, they tend to suggest a form of analyzing the image, dissecting it, but in a way that does not clarify its constitutive aspects but blurs them.  To the other side are a series of collage/abstract paintings. A warm, flat colour falls in the background upon which a more pastel ground is built. Squares are set at each extreme of the canvas and images are added. This kind of visual combination, quite common among painters within the city in the late 1960s and early 70s, seems imbued with a different quality by Côté, within which this encounter between medi

It is the nineteenth iteration of Art Mûr's annual survey of art being produced in graduate programs across the country. 13 institutes are taking part this time, and the work of 33 students pursuing their MFAs is showcased across two floors of the gallery. As usual, there are paintings and sculptures as well as textiles with painting dominating.  One of the more interesting things about this annual event has been the extent to which it tends to deprive artists of the various crutches they rely upon to maintain the "communicative" aspect of their work, namely supplementary text. They are in a certain sense denuded and left more vulnerable, set in potentially strange relations in this space alien from the studios of the artists or their intended fate as the aspect of an exhibition. Unlike most survey exhibitions, there is no justification offered for any of the selections and no clear unifying factor, which can make it all feel rather random. This contextualizatio