Égrégore at Galérie d'Art Yves Laroche was a jam packed crazy confluence of all sorts of styles, artists, mediums and messages. And somehow it all worked together: the lowbow, the pop surrealism, the graffiti or street art influenced and the classically trained brought forth a dynamic show that will be on Yves Laroche's walls until the 20th of December.
Click on the photo above to learn about the word "égrégore" or to marvel at the insane work of AJ Fosik's Nighttide for Idols (2012)
I checked out the show during the opening and will share a handful of faves here, but the show is massive! Worth an in-person visit, unless you can't make it/feeling lazy you can check out the online visit and start picking out works that will look great above your sofa.
Whoa! Upon walking into the gallery Dave Cooper's bronze Crittergirl (2014) is the first work that greets you.
Two beauties by Miss Van: Diablada (2014) and Lady Blue (2014)
Jeff Soto's Man (2014)
Ok, this piece isn't from Égrégore, but from the adjacent gallery Lacerte, whose space we ambled through during the opening. Jean-Robert Drouillard's Mini Love Louve (2014) is barely a foot tall and was sitting on the floor. I crouched down trying to take this image, causing another art reveler to almost trip over me. Art party!
Back to the show! The insane awesome cardboard sculpture work of Laurence Vallières
Liam Barr's Wed to the Wheel (2014)
An Immaculate Conception (2014) by artist and friend Kevin Ledo. I've had the pleasure of sharing gallery wall space with Ledo in the past and have seen his work evolve over the years, but still remaining distinct in his figurative style. We chatted about this evolution and getting ethereal with gold foil.
Regarding your new works (Arsenal, Yves Laroche, Muralfest) portraiture always remains strong and present and dominantly women, but recently you have integrated elderly faces and men, where did this direction come from?
I never really planned this progression, though I've been wanting to explore some new subjects and themes. Once I began painting murals I found that it was the perfect outlet for it.
The use of gold foil is consistent in your work and it first appeared as glowing halos in your Guiding Light (2006-10) series. How has the use of the foil evolved and what does it represent to you now?
It still represents an ethereal energy in my recent work. It is still speaking some of the same language that it did for me in older paintings, though it's not literally a halo anymore.
Any words you can share about you work in Égrégore?
That piece, like most of my recent work, wasn't planned to convey any particular idea before I began working on it. I just went on feeling and a vague direction and then began understanding what it was about more and more as it progressed. I titled it "An Immaculate Conception" because it seemed to me that that was what it was about. There is a clear religious reference there, and the fact that it's "An Immaculate Conception" and not "The Immaculate Conception" plays with ideas surrounding Christian beliefs and how similar story lines were told in religions before Christianity existed."
Voilà, a little art insight for the day.
These works and so much more on Yves Laroche's walls until December 20th.
