Does critical art risk positioning viewers as the passive recipients of prescribed messages? Can art cut through ideologies to reveal urgent political truths? Here Be Dragons features the work of seven contemporary artists who participate in social critique. Rather than attempting to instruct or persuade, these artists favour ambiguous or symbolic images that leave room for varying interpretations. Join artists Scott Benesiinaabandan, Laurent Craste and Juan Ortiz-Apuy for a walk-through of the exhibition as they discuss their work and artistic strategies with curator Emily Falvey.

Scott Benesiinaabandan’s little resistances series explores the relationship between personal acts of political resistance and archival documentation of historical crises. Laurent Craste’s series Sévices transforms eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French porcelain vases into the purported victims of populist uprisings. Juan Ortiz-Apuy uses IKEA catalogues, design history books and National Geographic magazines to create complex, hand-cut collages in which the excesses of commodity fetishism are both parodied and allegorized.

Admission is free and everyone is welcome! CUAG is an accessible space, with barrier-free washrooms and elevator.

Discount parking passes ($4.00 flat rate) will be available for sale at the tunnel entrance from 6:45 p.m. Please see the visiting page for directions.

Scott Benesiinaabandan is an Anishinabe intermedia artist who works primarily in photography, printmaking and video. He is based in Montreal, and recently completed a Canada Council New Media Production grant through OBx Labs/Ab-tech and Concordia.

Laurent Craste is a French-born ceramicist and video-maker who has been living and working in Montreal for the past 22 years. Craste’s work deconstructs the decorative codes that informed eighteenth- and nineteenth-century objects.

Emily Falvey has just been appointed Director/Curator of Owens Art Gallery at Mount Allison University. She was curator of contemporary art at the Ottawa Art Gallery from 2004 to 2008. In 2006 she received a Curatorial Writing Award (Contemporary Essay) from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries. She is completing a PhD in art history at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Juan Ortiz-Apuy was born in Costa Rica in 1980 and has lived and worked in Montreal since 2003. Ortiz-Apuy has a BFA from Concordia University (2008), a Post-Graduate Diploma from The Glasgow School of Art (2009) and a MFA from NSCAD University (2011). The venues of his recent exhibitions include Museum London, Gallery 44, Gallery TPW, the MacLaren Arts Centre, A Space Gallery, and the Quebec City Biennial: Manif d’art 7.

Carleton University Art Gallery
St. Patrick's Building
http://cuag.ca
@CUArtGallery