Top 5 art exhibits to scope out in Montreal this spring

With winter white gone but spring still lurking around the corner of winter’s lingering dusty gray, we all need to sate our lust for colour in creative ways. Art comes to the rescue, with an army of artists ready to colour in our world and renew our imagination with their fecund visions. Papier13 presents an army of artists who take on the white page, Eve Sussman explores time and space at MACM, Saturation gives us the full colour treatment, Gabriel Coutu-Dumont continues to colour in the spaces between sounds, and Benoît Aquin brings us the heat and colour of Haiti.

1. Eve Sussman and Rufus Corporation: whiteonwhite

May 23 to September 2nd
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal 

Brooklyn-based artist Eve Sussman and her team Rufus Corporation create things that are out of this world. Using a filmmaking robot that edits in real-time, which they’ve dubbed the “Serendipity Machine,” they’ve created a dystopic, abstract, sci-fi film installation Whiteonwhite: algorithmicnoir that references Kazimir Malevich and Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin. The exhibition brings together Sussman and Rufus Corporation’s film experiment, along with interrelated videos, photographs and installation works drawn travels through Russia and Asia.

2. Gabriel Coutu-Dumont: Wonders of A Transient Universe

May 4 to 25
Phi Centre

Gabriel Coutu-Dumont creates new media and physical works of art that explore music and its paraphernalia, from a visual and sculptural dimension. His work encompasses geometric, obliquely religious sculptural artifacts that resemble the roadcases used to transport sound equipment, as well as a/v works with Akufen (<<5mm>>) and for MUTEK. His explorations of the visual aesthetics of electronic music render visible the unseen dimensions of sound and its culture.

3. Saturation2013 + Star d’un soir

April 1 to 26
Yves Laroche Galerie

Saturation2013 brings together four aerosol artists – Alex Scaner, Philip Pun18 Cruz, KEMS and ZEK One from Boston, San Juan and Quebec – for a group exhibition. Meanwhile, in YL’s other gallery space, a solo exhibition by Montreal’s Stare, Star D’un Soir, takes over the walls.

4. Papier13: Contemporary Art Fair 

April 25-28

Works using paper — from drawings, prints and paintings to sculptures, photographs and art books — take center stage at this art fair, which takes place in a big tent at the Quartier des Spectacles. The 6th edition of Papier brings together 42 galleries from across Canada to exhibit and share works on paper by artists they represent, offering Montrealers the unique opportunity to both view and buy pieces by some of the most interesting Canadian artists.

5. Benoît Aquin: Haiti. Chaos and Daily Life

February 28-May 12
McCord Museum

In 2010, Montreal photojournalist Benoît Aquin traveled to Haiti to document the daily lives of Haiti’s people as they recovered from the devastating earthquake. Forty oversized colour photographs, complemented by excerpts from Dany Laferrière’s 2010 memoir, The World is Moving Around Me, vividly capture the chaos and beauty of a people struggling to rebuild their world.