The Painting Project. A Snapshot of Painting in Canada

Authors: Julie Bélisle, Louise Déry, Robert Enright, Nicolas Mavrikakis, Jonathan Shaughnessy

Artists: Melanie Authier, Mike Bayne, Hugo Bergeron, Simon Bilodeau, Jack Bishop, Jérôme Bouchard, Marie-Claude Bouthillier, Anthony Burnham, Sarah Cale, Arabella Campbell, Tammi Campbell, Thomas Chisholm, Louis-Philippe Côté, DaveandJenn, Pierre Dorion, Kim Dorland, Mario Doucette, Michael Dumontier & Neil Farber, Pierre Durette, Dorian FitzGerald, Graham Gillmore, Cynthia Girard, Sky Glabush, Kym Greeley, Clint Griffin, Dil Hildebrand, Jeremy Hof, Daniel Hutchinson, Chris Kline, Wanda Koop, Jessica Korderas, François Lacasse, Gwenessa Lam, Stéphane La Rue, Jean-François Lauda, Maclean, Norma Jean Maclean, Christine Major, Elizabeth McIntosh, Jason McLean, Sandra Meigs, Michael Merrill, Chris Millar, Kent Monkman, Tim Moore, Shaun Morin, Andrea Mortson, Wil Murray, Paul P., Brad Phillips, Ben Reeves, Francine Savard, Justin Stephens, Beth Stuart, Team Macho, Joseph Tisiga, Ehryn Torrell, Julie Trudel, Carol Wainio, Janet Werner

The catalogue provides a unique, masterful picture of the current painting practice in Canada, presented in four sections: Figures of Reality, grouping figurative-based approaches that build on the great painting traditions; Fictional Worlds, composed of figurative works with content either symbolic, inspired by comic strips, the media or illustration, or computer-generated; Painting as Subject, where, by means of quotation, gesture or abstraction, the “how” of painting becomes the subject matter; and Hybrid Practices, in which painting develops through contact with other artistic disciplines to produce object-paintings, text-paintings and photograph-paintings. It includes essays by Julie Bélisle, on the presence of the human figure in current Canadian painting; Louise Déry, on the idea of the exhibition as a panorama and a vehicle for defining identity; Robert Enright, on the passage from 20th-century to 21st-century painting in Canada; Jonathan Shaughnessy, on the collection of painting by national institutions; and a text by Nicolas Mavrikakis on the state of painting in Quebec. Featuring full-colour reproductions of 120 works, detailed entries, and biographical notes for the artists and the authors.

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