Piece by Roxanne Dupuis (courtesy of Espace Verre, photo credit: Michel Dubreuil)
Montreal’s arts scene always has something to get excited about. Great museums, jazz festivals, pop music festivals, film festivals, comedy festivals, world class music clubs and art galleries all call Montreal home. Even the city itself is a marvel of architecture and design that UNESCO designated a City of Design. Well, La Belle Ville welcomes a new exhibit of glass art by a new crop of glass artists to its always thrilling slate of art offerings.
Montreal glass-centric space, Espace Verre, is a multi-faceted non-profit whose range of services include teaching glass art, promoting glass through their gallery and sales, and providing studio and equipment rentals to professional glass artists. Two of the three organizational facets will be featured when Espace Verre opens their new exhibit, “S’exposer” Thursday, May 26th. The exhibition, which runs through September 9th, features the work of the six graduates from their Fine Crafts college degree—glass option program, which is given in collaboration with the Institut des métiers d’art and Cégep du Vieux Montréal. This group of graduates represents the 20th class to graduate from Espace’s program and “S’exposer” marks their first step into the world of professional glassblowing.
Piece by Marythee Joncas-Daigle (courtesy of Espace Verre, photo credit: Michel Dubreuil)
For the six women representing Espace Verre, this opening is the culmination of three years’ worth of work in classes that range from flame working and glassblowing to technical drawing and modeling to running a glass studio and developing a glass production enterprise. They may have all taken the same classes and learned their craft together, but these six Quebecois’ work is decidedly their own.
Piece by Stefanie Marquis (courtesy of Espace Verre, photo credit: Michel Dubreuil)
Roxanne Dupuis, with inspiration found in nature and an eye for the satirical, will showcase a “flock” of urban sheep. Hadashah Hatsu, who has previous formal training in visual arts, explores the incorporation of the written word into her glass pieces, which pay special attention to varying degrees of opacity and classic, contoured shapes. Marythee Joncas-Daigle allows her emotions and interpersonal exchanges to shape and inform her work. Using graphite or enamels to sketch out characters, she then uses glass to transform and enlarge those characters through the process of blowing. Carine Ledoux uses her artwork to explore themes of being a woman in the world, from depictions of bodies to anxieties.
Piece by Carine Ledoux (courtesy of Espace Verre, photo credit: Michel Dubreuil)
Her visual motif draws significant inspiration from old photographs and artifacts, drawing attention to these issues’ place in historical and contemporary contexts. Stefanie Marquis, whose work tends to revolve around sensuality with hearts (both whole and broken) as the go to image, studied architecture and interior design for several years before turning her attention to glassblowing, and that training comes through in her art as her pieces evoke an almost furniture-like utilitarianism. Isabell Ostiguy trains her focus on issues of color and opacity. Using assembled parts to create a unified whole she explores the contrast and relationship between glass objects, their colors and shapes.
Piece by Hadashah Hetu (courtesy of Espace Verre, photo credit: Michel Dubreuil)
It is an exciting time for these six glass artists and we would like to offer them the heartiest of congratulations!
Piece by Isabelle Ostiguy (courtesy of Espace Verre, photo credit: Michel Dubreuil)