Julie Doucet, Thérèse Mastroiacovo, Connor Willumsen, MTL sound map, 100 years of Mcluhan and The Raincoats!!

Montreal, August 17th, 2011

Contemporary! Contemporary! Contemporary!

Montreal, August 17th, 2011 – Open your mind, expand your senses, the 2011 visual arts component of POP Montreal is ready to be shared. From September 21st to the 25th, Art POP will curate exhibitions, stage designs, arttalks and publish zines with various must-see local artists and international guests.

Not a stranger to high profile events, Art POP is pleased to announce a number of special events in addition to the curated exhibitions: For the first time in Canada, band members Gina Birch, Ana Da Silvaand Shirley O’Loughlin will present their multimedia group-exhibition, The Raincoats: Adventures. The band will exhibit a collection of film, drawings and photographs from 1971 to 2011 and partake in an intimate discussion on the gap between their music and their conceptual works, presented in collaboration with POP Montreal’s Symposium.

Art POP will also curate 2 exhibits, gathering an exceptional array of local-emerging Contemporary artists and visionaries. Guided by a youthful curiosity and hunch for the slightly off-kilter, Art POP’s gaze isall about Montreal. The overly-philosophized idiom If a tree falls in a forest and no one was around to hear it, did it make a sound? - is a multi-dimensional premise-of-sorts. “People don’t realize how much goes on in Montreal’s art scene”, explains Stephanie Bokenfohr, Art POP curator. “In a way, Montreal is like a forest, the artists are trees, and they’re hard to make out or distinguish from one another because there’s so much going on. POP on the other hand, is a loud sound everyone recognizes… so I’m using these concepts of sound, ingraspability, and amplification to bring everyone together, to make it more accessible - the FOREST!”

The first exhibition, Did it make a sound? will include neon works by Thérèse Mastroiacovo, as well as series’ of drawings and animations by comic artist Connor Willumsen and comic veteran Julie Doucetas well as new works of off-canvas paintings by Edward Kwong. Artist Anna Edell will exhibit two new series, each presented in a sonic environment by Adam Wilcox. A landscape study examining Canadian identity, Canadian Art, and diverging media is presented by Edward Maloney - Depth Breadth Length Width. This exhibit will also include the Publié/Autopublié initiative of Thanh Truc Trinh & Didier Lerebours and B&W larger-than-life portraits documenting 10 years of POP Montreal’s impact on the music community by Richmond Lam, amongst many prominent local Montreal artists. In contrast,And no one was Around will show a focus on newer media, featuring a live electroacoustic performance, Julian & Maxwell Stein’s Montreal Sound Map, an exclusive publication by BOCA Gallery, a first for gallerists Jacques Bozeau and Jorge Ortega! And finally, there will be an arttalk session with Richard Kerr who will also present a foray into the technique and impact of Marshall McLuhan, as part of the centennial of the legendary media mogul’s birth: Marshall McLuhan, my teacher, from the classroom to the studio.

Thérèse Mastroiacovo, Salut les amis les artistes. 2003

Initiated in 2005, Art POP has succeeded in generating interest from general festival-goers while remaining conceptually challenging and showing each year more complexity in its programming. During the festival, Art POP’s mandate is two-fold: to present the works of Montreal’s emerging artists and to help these artists create relationships with international artistic communities.

Art POP complete programming

Art POP presents:
exhibition: A-T-IL FAIT DU BRUIT? / DID IT MAKE A SOUND?
ARTISTS: Therese Mastroiacovo, Edward Maloney, Julie Doucet, Anna Edell & Adam Wilcox, Connor Willumsen, Edward Kwong , Thanh Truc Trinh & Didier Lerebours, Richmond Lam, Tyler K. Rauman & Co., Richard Kerr
Daily, September 21st to the 25th, 2011
POP Quarters, 3450 St-Urbain
Vernissage: September 23rd, 4pm to 6pm

Art POP and the Société des Arts Technologique present:
exhibition: ET QUE PERSONNE N’EN EST TÉMOIN / AND NO ONE WAS AROUND
ARTISTS: Maxwell Stein | Drew Barnet | Julian Stein, Karen Zalamea, Madeline Coleman | Hilary Ison | Ming Lin | Aditi Ohri, BOCA Gallery, Raphaelle Frigon & Patryk Stasieczek, Craig Fahner & Steve Gurysh, Colin Rothfels, Montréal Sound Map, Richmond Lam, Richard Kerr
September 23rd to the 25th, 2011
Société des Arts Technologiques, 1201 St-Laurent blvd
Saturday & Sunday: 11am – 5pm
Vernissage: September 23rd, 6pm to 9pm

Art POP presents:
stage design : Hercules Taxidermy at the Hippos In Tanks Showcase
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Société des Arts Technologiques, 1201 St-Laurent blvd
Doors 8pm, show 9pm
Tickets 14$ av/ 16$ door

Art POP, the Symposium and La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse present:
arttalk: The Raincoats: Adventures, by Ana da Silva, Gina Birch, & Shirley O’Loughlin
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
POP Quarters, 3450 St-Urbain
Reception/vernissage 4pm to 6pm
Conversation at 5pm