On the Walls

“Glob,” by Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber of the Royal Art Lodge.

We revisit the Art Matters festival this week with a host of exhibitions that have popped up all across town. This week’s offerings include Assumptions are not derivative of accepted facts but of distant tales, happening at Galerie Espace, menagerie for hair & wood at La Baraque, Erase & Rewind at Studio XX, Ill Palette over at Eastern Bloc, curio at Coat Check Gallery and LAB 353 – BIOLOGIE MATÉRIALISTE at Espace Projet. The festival continues into the weekend with its Open House, giving you the chance to check out and meet with both artists and curators behind each exhibition. Check out the Art Matters site or our complete listings page for more info.

As the sea level surrounding their region rises some 15cm each year, photographer Matthieu Rytz was inspired to document the worsening living conditions of the indigenous Guna people. KUNA YALA en peril is a photo exhibition that centres on environmental conditions at the hands of a changing climate. Vernissage March 12, Maison du Developpement Durable (50 Ste-Catherine St. W), 5 p.m.

Perfect Enlightenment, by Diamanto Tsitouras, shares a love of literature and philosophy in dance in the heart of the Mile End. In addition to the artist’s presentation, there will be a dance performed by Kazuyo Fukunishi on hand. Vernissage March 14, Galerie Ame-Art (5345 Parc), 6 p.m.

Yet another double-header at Centre Clark: in room 1, Yan Giguère’s Visites Libres studies, through photographs, the theme of “habitat,” and what the word means for animals, humans and plant life. In room 2, Gwenaël Bélanger’s Breakdown (the follow-up to his 2010 project, 100, rue Blainville Ouest) details an animated house falling in one single take, deteriorating as it falls. The project tackles a range of themes including gravity, impermanence, time and movement. Both opening March 14, Centre Clark (5455, avenue de Gaspé,#114), 8 p.m.

Itérations, by duo Shannon Collis and Shawn Reynar, presents an audiovisual display featuring marks and drawings scrawled onto a pieces of film, which are then pushed into motion by magnets. In this process, the artists study traditional print and drawing techniques and the resulting interaction with newer visual media. Vernissage March 15, Arprim (Belgo Building, 372 Ste-Catherine W.), #426, 5:30 p.m.

L’Eloge du Peu praises the little things and brings together 20 emerging and professional artists, abstract and figurative painters, to explore minimalism and an emptiness which washes over the viewer with a sense of calm and quiet. Vernissage March 15, Galerie L’espace contemporain (5175 Papineau), 6 p.m.

The Royal Art Lodge was an art collective comprising five artists from Winnipeg that included Marcel Dzama, Michael Dumontier, Neil Farber, Adrian Williams and Jonathan Pylypchuk. They have assembled once again here in Montreal to present some of their more cutting and edgy pieces at Galerie Division. A discussion will also be held on Friday, March 15, featuring a lecture by painter Jonathan Pylypchuk. Vernissage March 16, Galerie Division (2020 William), 2 p.m., talk March 15, 1:30 p.m., free

There are two new exhibits to explore at Optica this week: the first, Mise en échec (Checkmate), features Montreal’s Noémi McComber exploring constraint and the role of women through a three-part video installation featuring the artist herself, confined. Hyang Cho of Guelph, Ontario, studies language in performance in Procès by reading aloud pieces of writing by various authors and philosophers in languages different from her mother tongue. Both vernissages March 16, Optica (Belgo Building, 372 Ste-Catherine W., #508), 3 p.m.  ■