A Pop Up Gallery in Mont-Tremblant

This is an exhibition I was extremely proud of, both in the creation of the "pop-up gallery" and the work presented. Working in close collaboration with Dominique Normand and Luis Paniagua, two artists whose work I greatly admire and whose friendship is deeply meaningful and valued. The three of us have worked in partnership before and we intuitively understand each others strengths and energies.

The Mont-Tremblant Pop Up Gallery as seen at night from outside.

After driving across Canada this October and presenting "pop-up galleries" out of the back of my van with great success, I decided to try the same in the village of Mont-Tremblant. Much of my work is inspired by the precambrian rock and boreal forests of the Laurentian mountains as I lived there for 25 years and absorbed the landscape directly into my bones. A return to the source seemed like a good idea but where to exhibit? Tremblant is notorious for its lack of exhibition venues for artists and so I decided to look into an empty 3000 sq foot retail space that has been for rent for quite some time on the main road through the village. Below are some before and after shots of our transformation from a raw, empty space with not even any lighting into a brightly lit, professional gallery space for our work to be shown.

 

We began by hanging several large lengths of earth colored thick canvas that Dominique had traded for with a friend of hers. This created a soft, warm backdrop for the paintings and hid the raw stud walls that ran down the whole length of space.

 

 

 Luis Paniagua, a long time friend and sculpture of the region, helped us wire and install a collection of lights that we either found, borrowed or brought from our studios.

 This was an exhibition of my larger scale works as most of my smaller ones were sold on my cross Canada tour this October. I have never seen all my large paintings hung together and so was very excited about the prospect. I could never have done it without Walt's truck and patient expertise. Most people don't realize the enormous amount of work that goes into a show like this. From bringing 30 large paintings down from the third floor of my Montreal studio, loading the truck, unloading the truck in Tremblant, setting up the gallery, installing the paintings, coordinating the wine, food, coat racks, tables and countless other details.

 Finally it is opening night, the paintings have been hung, the sculptures placed and their energy starts to fill the space. We all look at each other and agree that each piece has found its place in the room and our work is done. Now the paintings and sculpture will have to speak for themselves as people enter and begin to listen to their stories.