UPCOMING EVENT:
Storytelling at the table
Saturday, August 9, from 5 pm to 6 pm
Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is pleased to present Nourrir la nostalgie, a group exhibition by guest curator María Andreína Escalona de Abreu.
“This exhibition presents works by Madison Strizic, Isabela Markus Nafarrate, Sacha Pérez del Solar, Miao, Sam Lee, Snack Witch Joni Cheung and Armando Cuspinera as an imagined home. Here, the ingredients of nostalgic and diasporic dishes are also materials for artwork. The table is set using practices of care and hospitality that become critical gestures of resistance. And tensions over the emotional and political power of food are on the menu. By questioning the effects of immigration, globalization and the food industry, the works intended for this recipe pose the question: how do these consumer goods, which have become cultural markers, nourish or exploit nostalgia?
To nourish nostalgia, soothe a heart (and belly) in diaspora, revive a craving memory, please follow these directions, in no particular order:
Invite what reconnects you with what you thought was lost, far away. Whatever transports you to memories of childhood (or adulthood), however familiar and personal, reveals rather deep ties nurtured by the collective. You'll find these guests in grocery stores, youtube tutorials, the dining room, the kitchen, photo albums, offerings from the familiar garden and even in a gallery. For the artists, it's beans, avocados, SPAM, tea for the ancestors, challah, clementines, steak on a wood plank.
Play the game the artists propose. Through the senses and offerings, they invite you to participate, contribute and feed (from) the works present here. Eat Miao's beans and Joni's sweets, share a cup of tea on Madison's table, and peel a clementine offered by Armando. Embark on visits to Asian supermarkets by Sam, a hangry hallucination by Sacha, an exploration of identity by Isabela.
Cultivate a critical stance toward food, even food that feeds your heart. Think about imported foods and how they embody a misplaced nostalgia: that of a "home" lost, idealized or recomposed here in Canada. This creates a tension when we consider the consequences of agricultural exploitation, the export and trafficking of goods, the artificial and harmful manipulation of food, and so on. Mix these ingredients with intention and let them marinate.
Share abundance. Consider hospitality as a means of resisting cultural erasure and cultivating forms of intentional community. The generosity that surrounds a dining table, or a shared recipe, is passed from generation to generation, from potluck to potluck across cultures and ancestral knowledge. Accompany your nostalgia with a clementine jam, if you wish.” – María Andreína Escalona de Abreu
Storytelling at the table
Saturday, August 9, from 5 pm to 6 pm, the presenting artists and the curator will gather around the big table in the gallery and share their stories of inspiration, nostalgia and love for food. Together, as they chat and snack, they will activate the pieces by Armando Cuspinera, Snack Witch Joni Cheung, Miao, and Madison Strizic. The public will be invited to ask questions as well. The conversations will mostly take place in English.
Artists:
Armando Cuspinera is a multidisciplinary artist from Veracruz, Mexico. He currently lives in Montréal, where he earned a Master’s degree in Sculpture and Ceramics at Concordia University. He also holds a degree in Industrial Design from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the Universidad de las Américas.
Snack Witch Joni Cheung is a grateful, uninvited guest born—and knows she wants to die—on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Stó:lō, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh peoples. They are a Certified Sculpture Witch with an MFA from Concordia University (2023). As a wicked #magicalgirl ✨ who eats art and makes snacks, she has exhibited across Turtle Island and beyond. Currently, they're based on the stolen lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka and Mi’kmaq peoples, working under precarious conditions as a sessional professor at Concordia University and NSCAD University. Their practice is supported by various funding bodies, including the BC Art Counsil and Canada Council for the Arts.
Sam Lee is a Korean-Canadian photographer who primarily looks for pictures in places that are flooded at least knee deep in collective memory and nostalgia. Through this work, he attempts to draw attention to the thin veneer of surrealism that has been carefully applied over all surfaces of the familiar and everyday. Currently, he is based in Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal.
In her material, culinary, and performative explorations, Miao examines the relations between the senses, memory, everyday gestures, and food by creating sensory evocations and cooking ancestral recipes. Her practice invites us to slow down, savor the present moment, and embody the cycles of nature. Having lived in various regions of East Asia, Miao finds inspiration in moments of connection between different cultures and the ancestral knowledge that informs our present.
Isabela Markus Nafarrate is a Mexican artist based in Montreal whose work navigates the tensions between the organic and the artificial, the permanent and the ephemeral, the intimate and the foreign. Her work is coloured by displacement, information overload, and sentimentality, creating a space where pre-Columbian sculptures mingle in family photos, glitter collides with rusted nails, and flowers fuse with price tags.
Sacha Pérez del Solar, a second-generation Peruvian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, is currently pursuing a Studio Arts degree at Concordia University. With a background in Computation Arts, he creatively explores the concept of systems, where elements are adapted and repurposed, transforming in shape and meaning. Through his work, Pérez del Solar invites you to ponder the intricate web of connections that link us all.
Madison Strizic (they/she) is an artist, facilitator, and baker. Based in Tiohtiá:ke [Montréal], they hold a BFA from Concordia University in Fibre and Material Practices (2024). Their work offers participatory and experimental methods of coming together and coming a/part (of) through storytelling, cooking, and play.
Recently, they have presented in a number of group exhibitions and performance events including FOFA Gallery (2025); Rencontre Interuniversitaire de Performance Actuelle (2024); and Centre Arprim (2024). They are currently part of the 2025 artch cohort and will exhibit new work with the festival in October.
About the curator
María Andreína Escalona De Abreu is a Venezuelan visual artist, writer, curator, and arts worker based in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal. She obtained a BFA in Fibres and Material Practices at Concordia University in 2022 and has since been developing her curatorial practice with various organisations. She works notably at the FOFA Gallery as the Exhibition Coordinator and with Céline Bureau Residency as a board member. Escalona's practice brings together curation, collaborative initiatives, creative writing, textile installations, and handmade paper as ways of dreaming, confabulating and applying notions of sustainability, community development and advocacy for equity in the arts. Escalona’s work is a “tough-love” letter to her Venezuelan roots and her present-day life in Canada.