Bradley Ertaskiran Gallery | New York comes to Montreal

American gallery owner Danny Báez was given carte blanche to create an exhibition in Montreal bringing together a dozen emerging artists from New York. A unique project called Last Call.

Eric Clement
The Press

Before the pandemic, the Bradley Ertaskiran gallery came into contact, in New York, with a gallery owner and “friend of artists”, Danny Báez. In his forties, he calls himself “regular normal”, hence the name of his gallery opened last November, REGULARNORMAL. This professional has made a lot of artistic contacts and a good reputation in New York, especially among young artists, since he left the Dominican Republic 18 years ago. He also created the Meca Art Fair, organized since 2017 in Puerto Rico.

Last year, the gallery therefore decided to organize an exhibition in Montreal by letting Danny Báez choose a dozen emerging artists from New York who are currently in vogue. “The list of artists has changed a lot since then, and that’s why the exhibition is called Last Call laughs gallerist Antoine Ertaskiran. The exhibition includes 10 artists from Manhattan and Brooklyn, of various ethnic origins, and two that the Montreal gallery suggested to him, Preston Pavlis and Azza El Siddique.

The scenographic deployment in the gallery on rue Saint-Antoine thus reflects the effervescence of the New York contemporary art milieu, where young contemporary art artists increasingly benefit from a solid notoriety (when they are good!) thanks to social networks.

“Young artists have been in high demand for two years,” says Antoine Ertaskiran. It’s amazing what is happening in the market that has become almost global. So it’s fascinating to present foreign artists, especially New Yorkers, in Montreal. Otherwise, you have to go to New York! »

Last Call is an exhibition with a community flavor, with 24 refreshing works that come in handy at the start of spring when we are quite in search of color. And above all, it is a proposal by artists with personal and inspiring approaches. As the art critic André Seleanu puts it in his essay Understand contemporary art, when we look at these works of young artists, we feel “a strong need to make explicit and verbalize” the feeling we experience. They are so expressive.

These works have different materials: fabric, paint, drawing, wallpaper, marbles, rubber, etc. Precisely, rubber from recycled tires is the constituent element of two sculptures by Kim Dacres. Black busts for which the Jamaican-born artist used screws to assemble and twist his tire pieces. The result is fascinating, as she manages to give a human face to these blackish and shiny clusters.

Originally from Sudan, Azza El Siddique presents two metallic works. Small in size, unlike his monumental installations which are his signature. Before the birth of time, shadow and a place of meaning is a steel, silver and glass frame with the image of a cobra. The artist, who is inspired by myths and spirituality, enjoys transforming materials. We will be able to see another facet of her work, from Thursday at Clark, where she will exhibit an installation inspired by ancient Egypt for a month.

Interesting digital collage work that the four prints of Joiri Minaya made following a performance she presented in a public space, dressed in lush clothes reflecting her Dominican origins. A beautiful work on identity and colonialism. Already exhibited at Nada Miami, Melissa Joseph also won us over with her containers stuffed with felted wool painted to reveal representations of her family of Indian origin.

Only one work by Preston Pavlis in the exhibition. The young American artist residing in Halifax and represented by the Bradley Ertaskiran gallery already has a solo to his credit in New York. And two works by Cyle Warner, aged 22 just like Preston Pavlis. Caribbean-born photographer Cyle Warner works with fabrics from his family and paint to create huge flag-like frames. A work of weaving and composition very well done. And which makes the rays of the sun appear in one of the two works, Untitled Exodus (Still Happening), purchased at the opening by a Montreal collector. New York is in Montreal and will therefore stay there for a while…

Last Call is presented at the Bradley Ertaskiran Gallery until April 16.