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Printemps du MAC 2023 Art Auction: 21 local artists you need to know


MONTREAL, April 19, 2023 /CNW/ - The Printemps du MAC art auction begins today. A feature of the event to be held on April 28 at New City Gas, this year's auction for the benefit of the Fondation du Musée d'art contemporain (MAC) features 21 emerging and established local artists. Bidding will be open until the evening of Les Printemps du MAC, for which some tickets are still available! The auction will end half an hour after midnight (12:30 a.m.) on the night of April 28 to 29. The auction catalogue is available online.

Continuing a practice that started with the event's virtual edition, the Fondation du MAC will be giving the artists one-third of the money raised by the art sale as a vote of thanks for their contribution and to help support their artistic practice. "Adding a work of art to our daily lives can be inspiring and symbolic of our values, our interests, and our commitment to culture. The artists have been so generous; in fact, some of the pieces were created especially for this event," said Erika Del Vecchio, curator and member of the Printemps du MAC 2023 organizing committee.

"The Foundation is very pleased to support the next generation of artists and to help the contemporary art ecosystem flourish. The Printemps du MAC art auction invites art lovers to make up their own minds and develop a personal approach to what contemporary art is. The auction presents art in all its forms," said Anne Lebel, Executive Director of the Fondation du MAC.

The auction creates a connection between philanthropists and Canada's contemporary cultural world. "It offers the public a unique opportunity to intimately engage with the art world and provides a tangible means of supporting contemporary artists, while also giving visitors an up-close and personal experience with their work", said Francis Guindon, a co-chair of the Printemps du MAC 2023 organizing committee.

The auction offers a selection of works that aim to expand the given boundaries of visual art and attract both neophytes and connoisseurs. "It's also an ideal opportunity to start a collection by purchasing that first piece that will feed an interest in contemporary art," said Charles LeMay, the other co-chair of the organizing committee.

The Fondation du MAC would like to offer its sincere thanks to the artists who have donated works for this year's auction: Maude Arsenault, Nabil Azab, Vinna Begin, Ophélie Bouchard, Shary Boyle, Craig Commanda, Maria Esthela, Chris Fusaro, Pascale Girardin, Léa Grantham, Maggy Hamel Metsos, Andrée-Jade Hélie, Mie Kim, Alexia Laferté Coutu, Sandy Lamb, Malcolm McCormick, Andrew Moncrief, Marion Paquette, Laurence Pilon, Sabrina Ratté, Corri-Lynn Tetz.

Here are some examples of the art included in the auction.

Vitrine de papier, 2021, Giclee photographic print on archival museum-quality cotton paper, 42

Vitrine de papier
2021
Giclee photographic print on archival museum-quality cotton paper
42" x 55"
Edition 1/5 + 2 AP
White frame, 98% UV AR glass

Maude Arsenault is a Montreal artist whose work examines the themes of female representation, private space, domesticity and intimacy using a photographic approach that ranges from abstract compositions to self-portraits, landscapes and documentary images. Her work has been exhibited around the world, including at Projet Casa (2022), Les Rencontres de la photographie (2021), and Fulcrum Press, Los Angeles (2021). Arsenault won the Hariban Award for International Photography in Japan (2020) and has received a Y. L. Bombardier Visual Arts scholarship (2021), as well as a Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art (2023).

Chris Fusaro, model 3468, 2023, Fiberglass and bioresin with fabric upholstery, Upholstery by Atelier 94B, 23

Chris Fusaro 
model 3468 
2023
Fiberglass and bioresin with fabric upholstery
Upholstery by Atelier 94B
23" x 25" x 38.5"

Chris Fusaro's designs defy traditions in which a functionalist approach typically prevails. Employing function as the premise for applied form, his utopic vision is motivated by efforts to rationalize the creative act through functional objects that are lively yet reasoned. The use of materials like plastic and metal is balanced between their utilitarian heritage and the potential for new abstractions. Lightweight forms defy straightforward categorization, exploring the unending boundaries of what an object might be. From their speculative to their material states, Fusaro's ideas remain inspired by the social, historical, and economic precedents that have given rise to the everyday objects around us.

Sabrina Ratté, Radiances III, 2018, 4K video, 16:9 ratio, 2 min 07 sec loop, Edition 2 / 5 + 1 AP, This lot includes a 43

Sabrina Ratté
Radiances III
2018
4K video, 16:9 ratio, 2 min 07 sec loop
Edition 2 / 5 + 1 AP
This lot includes a 43" Samsung The Frame HD 4K TV
https://vimeo.com/238454451

An important part of Sabrina Ratté's artistic approach focuses on formal and aesthetic research, as well as on the question of the medium, its impact and its nature. For Ratté, the creation of perspectives, textures, and compositions and the choice of colors make video a way of painting with electronic light and pixels. Radiances III is from a series that is engaged in this formal research to create a parallel between the aesthetics of the digital image and that of traditional painting. A combination of techniques such as 3D animation, video synthesis and digital manipulation was used to bring out textures that evoke, without imitating, layers of paint, brushstrokes, and reliefs that seem to want to emerge from the screen. These moving paintings suggest a contemplative state where landscapes slowly evolve in time, freeing the viewer from a narrative, linear montage, while maintaining the temporal aspect of the video. Her work has been exhibited by many institutions including the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Arsenal Contemporary Art (New York), the Laforet Museum (Tokyo), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the PHI Centre (Montreal), the Chronus Art Center (Shanghai) and the Museum of the Moving Image (New York).

Les Printemps du MAC

Created in 2006, Les Printemps du MAC takes shape each year under the management of the Printemps du MAC Organizing Committee, a group of young philanthropists with a passion for contemporary art who shoulder the work of organizing a unique event with real added value for the guests, and of raising the MAC's profile for the benefit of the Fondation du Musée d'art contemporain. Born out of a desire to make younger generations more aware of contemporary art and of the MAC's essential role in conserving and exhibiting this legacy at the provincial, national and international levels, this event makes a direct contribution to the MAC's development since all proceeds from the gala flow to the Fondation du MAC.

The Fondation du MAC would like to thank co-chairs Francis Guindon (WANT Les Essentiels and Quartz Co.) and Charles LeMay (Productions J) along with the organizing committee members and ambassadors who have generously given their time and energy to make this event a success. It would also like to highlight the generous involvement of honorary co-chairs, Sophie Laframboise (Cossette) and Julien Dirand (CDPQ). As well, the Fondation is grateful to BLG for sponsoring the auction, and to each and every member of the event's organizing committee: 

Andy Barril (YHP Group), Alexe Corbeil-Courchesne (Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP), Erika Del Vecchio (Arsenal art contemporain), Allison Forbes (Raisonnable), Francis Guindon (WANT Les Essentiels and Quartz Co.), Olivier Lapierre (communications, public relations and media relations consultant), Charles LeMay (Productions J), Catherine Martel (Alice & Smith and YHP Group), Emma Molson (Sotheby's Art Institute), Amélie Elizabeth Pelly (Association des radiologistes du Québec), Jessica Rosen (L'Oréal Paris), Marjorie Roux (MATINÉE STUDIO public relations), Stefanie Stergiotis (Vic Studios) and Maximiliano Tyrawskyj (National Bank of Canada).

About the Fondation du MAC

The Fondation du MAC is dedicated to supporting the museum in its various activities, with a focus on building the collection, mounting exhibitions and maintaining educational programs. To achieve this mission, the Foundation's mandate is to raise funds from organizations and individuals interested in promoting and preserving contemporary art from Québec, Canada and abroad. In this way, the Foundation helps raise the profile of the collection at the heart of Canada's premier institution devoted exclusively to contemporary art: the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. macm.org/fondation/

About the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal

The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal makes today's art a vital part of Montréal and Québec life. For more than fifty years, this vibrant museum has brought together local and international artists, their works and an ever-growing public. It is a place of discovery, offering visitors experiences that are continually changing and new, and often unexpected and stirring. The MAC presents temporary exhibitions devoted to outstanding and relevant current artists who provide their own particular insight into our society, as well as exhibitions of works drawn from the museum's extensive collection. Every form of expression may be featured: digital and sound works, installations, paintings, sculptures, ephemeral pieces, and more. In addition to its wide range of educational activities familiarizing the general public with contemporary art, the MAC also organizes unique artistic performances and festive events. It is a window onto a myriad of avant-garde expressions that increase the exposure and awareness of art throughout the city and beyond. https://macm.org 

SOURCE Fondation du MAC



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