Art Mûr gets fresh

Stacey Dewolfe - The Montreal Mirror, July 2011, Montreal

As happens each summer, Art Mûr (5826 St-Hubert) is showing its love for emerging artists with an exhibition of recent work from some of Eastern Canada’s best student painters and sculp­tors. “There is a really exciting energy in the works in Fresh Paint/New Construction,” says participating artist Jon Claytor. “It is rare that an amazing space like this is turned over to young artists, [and as a result] none of the work comes across as jaded or institutionalized.”

Though Claytor’s paintings—including cover art for the last Snailhouse album—have explored various subjects, the work here reflects moments in his childhood. “There was graffiti on rocks and bears at the dump. Similarly, these paintings are grounded in traditional media, but are overlaid with varnishes and spray paint… and like the graffiti, are timeless and fleeting at the same time.” In addition to showing the diversity of talent coming out of Canadian universities, the show has, over the past few years, become something of an indicator of future success—a third of the finalists in last year’s RBC Painting Competition had shown work in the exhibition, which bodes well for the 32 artists whose work is featured in this year’s edition, which runs until Aug. 27.