Opening reception: Saturday, July 19 from 3-5pm
Fresh Paint / New Construction: Claire Bartleman, Joe Becker, Jessica Bell, Lisa-Marie Bissonnette, Kaitlyn Bourden, Grace Braniff, Teresa Carlesimo, Scott Chalmers, Ken Cooper, Lynette de Montreuil, Rose Fior, Vincent Fournier, Julie Gagnon, Megan Green, Danielle Havimaki, Stephanie Hier, Colin Hill, Rebecca Houston, Amelie Jerome, Vladimir Kraynyk, Elise Lafontaine, Pascale Leblanc Lavingne, Nicole Levaque, Amelie Leveque, Karine Locatelli, José Mansilla-Miranda, Miranda Marcotte, Jean-Sebastien Massicotte-Rousseau, Ian McMurrich, Katrina Mendoza, Zoë Mpeletzikas, Andrew Oliver, Sarah Osborne, Lexie Owen, Kate Puxley, Milena Roglic, Lisa Spiers, Matt Tarini, Rebecca Toderian, Shanie Tomassini, Liz Toohey-Wiese, Couzyn Van Heuvelen, Noémie Weinstein.
A posteriori – 10th anniversary: Hugo Bergeron, Pascal Caputo, Magalie Comeau, Phil Delisle, Erika Dueck, Alex Fischer, Nicolas Grenier, Neil Harrison, Annie Hémond Hotte, Laurent Lamarche Alexis Lavoie, Kate McQuillen, Vitaly Medvedovsky, Jessica Peters, Natalie Quagliotto, Francois Raymond, Ianick Raymond, Luke Siemens.
Text by Michael Patten
Cats have been known to survive falls from great heights, which has led to the popular myth that they have multiple lives. Of course, cats are not supernatural but they do in fact possess a highly developed sense of balance and an extraordinary gift of agility and flexibility. When a fall occurs, they can right themselves in mid-air and spread themselves out like a parachute to slow the impact. This righting reflex allows them to land on their feet most of the time. Not unlike cats, painting and sculpture have also survived despite being declared dead repeatedly throughout history. Artists continue to develop techniques and materials that push the disciplines of painting and sculpture forward thereby refuting the death of art.
Today, artists have more freedom than ever to work with any materials and techniques they desire. The scholar Jerrold Levinson, wrote that “hybrid art forms, and the works they encompass, tend to be symbols of creativity it-self, of forcefully and purposively putting things together, of welding items previously disparate and unconnected into new and more complex unities.”1 Kate Puxley’s Cat Cloud, featured on the cover of this publication, is a case in point. In front a monochrome painting, Puxley’s taxidermied cat, dripping in polyurethane foam and paint, is quietly suspended in a free fall. At the crossroads of painting and sculpture, the two mediums showcased in the current exhibition, it embodies the continuing struggle between both disciplines and the increasing amalgamation of one technique with the other.
Fresh Paint / New Construction is a major survey of student painting and sculpture. In the last ten years, this annual exhibition has testified to the versatility of contemporary visual practices emerging from Canada’s best painting and sculpture programmes and to the creative spirit of a new generation of artists. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of this unique event, Art Mûr has invited a new school to participate, the Ontario College of Art and Design, thus raising the number of participating institutions to twelve. Also, eighteen former participants of previous editions have been invited to exhibit their current work in a retrospective that will take up the entire third floor of the gallery.
1. Jerrold Levinson, Hybrid Art Forms, Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Winter, 1984), p.11
