April 28 - May 1 2006
Art Chicago 2006
International Invitational Section
Luc Courchesne and Jérôme Fortin
The gallery is very happy to announce that we been invited to participate at Art Chicago 2006 in the International Invitational section. Our presentation will feature new works by Luc Courchesne and Jérôme Fortin. As in 2005, International invitational and Stray Show dealers will be exhibiting under the same roof, offering a diverse and exciting format for all. The International Invitational will provide a selection of approximately 15 young, cutting-edge contemporary art galleries noted for their highly innovative programs. Each of the participating galleries will focus on a particular spectrum of current issues and trends that are electrifying the contemporary art world. This special section will offer an exciting opportunity for curators, collectors, critics and artists to see the latest work emerging on the international art scene.
At Art Chicago we will be presenting a selection of illuminated circular rotating translucent photographs from Luc Courchesne's Panoscopic Journal and a new video. The Panoscopic Journal, undertaken by Courchesne in 1999, documented moments of Courchesne whereabouts as he traveled to exhibit his interactive portraits and developed immersive projection systems of his own. His goal with the Journal was, essentially then, to get familiar with the novel point of view offered by the catadioptric lens he was using. In this exhibition, Courchesne continues his Journal to questions more directly this time the concept of place, of the observing subject and of the novel nature of the worlds one is now invited to step in. Nothing is less certain than these « locations » presented as « switchable » realities.
Jérôme Fortin will present works from Screens, his newest series based on work presented in the group show L’envers des apparences at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal this Summer. These large installations are created with simple sheets of printed paper taken from comic books that he cuts end-to-end and glues onto the wall. He creates variations on motifs which, by it patterns and sheer size, recall movie screens and monitors, where the basic unit pixels are revealed in a estranged way. These works continue his formal exploration that he examined in Tondos which will also be featured. Tondos is a series of prints created in relation to the Seascapes presented at ARCO’05 and featured on the front page of ABC de ARCO (numero 3, February 2, 2005).
Jérôme Fortin, recipient of the 2004 prix Pierre-Ayot, has had work shown in several group exhibitions in Quebec and abroad, such as the Biennale de Montréal in 1998, Galerie UQAM in 2000, and the Officina America in Bologna in 2002. His first solo show within the institutional framework of a museum, Ici et là, was presented in 2002 at the Musée d'art de Joliette and is currently touring in Canada. It will be presented in Tokyo in 2006. His work can be found in the collections of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée d'art de Joliette and several private collections.
