Our Cafes

(At 1010 Broad)

Opening:
Thursday November 26, 2009; 5:00-8:00 p.m.

(‘Gallery Walk’ evening)

last day of exhibition:
Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Montreal artist Jeannette Perreault looks at quiet moments or dialogue in a coffee house, the reading of a newspaper, a view of books or flowers on a table, and musical and theatrical events. The content serves as a diary of current place, time and mood – the mood usually vivacious or tranquil, expectant or poised. We are transported into the scene’s specificity; it is not every interior in every city in every season and is consequently not fully malleable to our own history. We may marvel at the specificity of the paintings and the potential which they ascribe to our present moment but we do not indulge unduly in nostalgia.

Perreault not only cites a specific place and time but does so artistically: there is, for instance, the heightened energy of her spontaneous, gestural brushwork and strong contrast between the light-emanating areas of exposed coloured gesso and the stylized black contours guiding the often high-key colour.