Montreal art galleries, art centres reopen, but weren't locked down at same time – Montreal Gazette

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Art galleries, art centres and museums around Quebec were allowed to reopen this week, sparking a wave of relief in the art world.

Commercial art galleries had been closed since Christmas, when the Quebec government imposed a lockdown that extended through Feb. 8. But not-for-profit art centres and museums were forced to close three months earlier, at the end of September.

“We were really frustrated in the fall to see commercial galleries open, and non-profit galleries and museums closed,” said Caroline Andrieux, founder and artistic director of Fonderie Darling, a visual arts venue in Griffintown.

“We’re happy the government corrected its mistake on that level, but we felt it took a long time, and that the nuances between museums, art galleries and art centres were not at all understood by the government.”

On Sept. 24, Concordia professor Cynthia Girard-Renard’s exhibit Sans toit ni loi: Les cétacés du Saint-Laurent and Vincent Larouche’s Ocelle opened in the former foundry, only to be shuttered five days later. After sitting quiet for more than four months, the exhibits reopened Thursday.

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“Attendance was good,” said Andrieux, who spent the evening at the Musée d’art contemporain (MAC), taking in La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux, an exhibit of works by more than 30 Montreal artists. “You can see that people are impatient to see art again. It’s a balm for the heart and soul.”

Cheryl Sim was crushed when the Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art had to close in the fall.

“It was extremely deflating,” said Sim, the foundation’s managing director and curator. “You have this range of emotions as you think about how important culture is for the human being.”

The Phi Foundation’s show Diaspora, featuring the works of racialized artists from Montreal and abroad, closed at the end of September and never reopened. The foundation’s next exhibit, Union, by South Korean-French artist Lee Bae, opens Feb. 24.

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Sim didn’t resent commercial galleries for receiving preferential treatment in the fall.

“I was so glad they were able to find a loophole to stay open,” she said. “The only thing that sustained me through this period was knowing I could at least go see art in commercial galleries. It was a lifeline.”

Nowhere is the arbitrary divide between commercial galleries and non-profit art centres blurrier than at the Belgo Building. Located side by side on the third floor of the Ste-Catherine St. loft complex — which houses an array of visual art spaces — are Skol, an artist-run centre, and Galerie Hugues Charbonneau. One was closed all fall, the other open through Christmas.

“That seemed unfair,” said Stéphanie Chabot, Skol’s general and artistic director. “We could understand the demands of the market, and how private galleries have to sell to survive; but in another way, it was too bad. This is not a dangerous place. We respect the rules. There were never more than four people (visiting at a time), and it’s a big gallery.

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“It’s a space that serves an important function. People need culture in a pandemic. We communicate through culture.”

Skol’s next exhibit, Phénomène du dortoir, by Isabelle Guimond and Carolyne Scenna, opens in March.

“We’re super happy,” Chabot said. “We would have liked to (be able to) have a vernissage, but that’s life.”

Hugues Charbonneau was happy to have the past month and a half off. Contrary to what one might expect, 2020 was a banner year for the gallery owner.

“I don’t know if it’s because of the pandemic, but last year (2019) was a record,” he said, “and (2020) surpassed last year, by a lot.”

Charbonneau represents several Montreal artists on the rise, including Haitian-Québécois painter Manuel Mathieu and Congolese-Québécois visual artist Moridja Kitenge Banza.

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Mathieu’s solo show at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts closed after just two weeks in September, reopening this week. Both Mathieu and Banza were part of Diaspora, at the Phi Foundation, and are in the MAC’s new exhibit.

The closures of those spaces limited the artists’ interactions with the public, but Charbonneau did brisk business at the gallery, both through private appointments with collectors and online transactions with museums in the U.S. and overseas.

Though happy to have been open all fall, he wishes the rest of the Quebec art world could have been so lucky.

“I would have preferred museums remain open, more than galleries,” said Charbonneau, who spent Thursday evening at the Fonderie Darling, and has tickets for the MAC next week.

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“It’s naive to think it’s helping the art economy by keeping galleries open and closing art centres. We’re an ecosystem. Everything is related.”

tdunlevy@postmedia.com

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