Gallery Mandate

Current Exhibition

COMPUTER CAMP LOVE

 

by Valérie Sury

 

From March 12 to May 14, 2010

Opening: Friday, March 12 at 7:00 pm

 

From March 12 to May 14, 2010, Wilder & Davis Gallery will be presenting a wide array of paintings, papier mâché dolls and illustrations by French artist, Valérie Sury.

 

Sury’s detailed acrylic paintings and whimsical papier mâché dolls carry the intensity linked with Art Brut through complex compositions and meticulous application of textures and colors. With each brushstroke emerges a fantastical world inhabited by playful and colourful looking figures that seem to be laughing right back at the viewer. Inspired by Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquat and other contemporary forms of American pop culture such as graffiti, comic strips, and Asian manga, Sury’s artwork sometimes borrows from the tradition of ex-voto paintings.

 

 Sury’s papier mâché dolls on the other hand take on quirky figurative shapes reminiscent of Niki de St. Phalle or Louise Bourgeois. The result is challenging visuals, at times almost childish, as well as a mix of French and English views giving a unique perspective on the American experience.

 

 The general public and the media are cordially invited to meet the artist at the opening of the exhibition on Friday, March 12 at 7:00 p.m. An improvised musical performance will also be given by Émilie Girard-Charest (cello), Lizann Gervais (violin) and François Gagné (clarinet).

 

French artist VALERIE SURY is a painter, sculptor and illustrator. She graduated from Montpellier Fine Arts School in 1994 with complementary courses from Nantes Fine Arts School. Her work has been shown at prestigious exhibitions in Chicago, Brussels, to the Lakeside Gallery in Michigan City (USA) and the famous Galerie du Triangle in Bordeaux (France). She currently lives and works in Montreal where she’s selling books published by the irreverent, independent publishing house Le Dernier Cri in Canada and USA.