Indie Painter Ray Nylund is Not a Quitter

History is witness to the gross underestimation of brilliant artists. A century after Van Gogh’s demise, Don McLean sings praises of Starry Starry night, a view from Van Gogh’s asylum window. Not much has changed in the past century. What sets a mainstream artist apart from an indie artist is exposure and lets face it, we know little about the indie painters in our own backyard…

Join the Club, the Candyass Club, Tonight @ Cafe Cleopatre

Velma, Velma, Velma, what have you got yourself into now?

As if running her own burlesque troupe (the Dead Doll Dancers); helping to save Cafe Cleopatre; theatrically teaching the history of Montreal’s Red Light District alongside Donovan King; and the semi-regular trips to burlesque festivals in New York and Las Vegas wasn’t enough, Velma Candyass is now doing a monthly show.

The aptly named Candyass Club runs tonight at the aforementioned Cafe Cleopatre and features burlesque, drag and all sorts of quirky…

Shout it out loud: Artist Gina Birch does post-punk girl art

L’Ecole Des Beaux-Arts is pulsating with art and energy on Saturday as artists, students and punk rock enthusiasts come together to contemplate a very unique female experience. The Raincoats: Adventures art show, at the top a winding staircase, starts behind an ominous black curtain. Inside, a woman screams wildly. Cautiously peeling open the curtain, I crash into the chest of a sheepish-looking young man. He apologizes and sails down the stairs to the lobby. God, what’s happening in there? Then I see her – the screamer – the frame focused tightly around her face, catching a moment…

Adopt This! is back on stage this week at Theatre Ste-Catherine

Six years ago, he landed his first comedy gig at a corporate office Christmas party. No mic, no stage, and no one at the party expecting this comedic interruption, Dan Bingham wooed the stodgy crowd with enthusiastic zeal and jokes about Batman. Since then he’s been on the midnight train to success, moving at full momentum with no plans of slowing down. His award-winning one man show Adopt This! is back by popular demand for a special three night run this weekend at Theatre Ste-Catherine. Adopt This! did incredibly well…

Murder Most Raunchy: Glam Gam’s If Looks Could Kill, They Will @ Cafe Cleopatre

There’s a killer loose and you can help catch him or her, or at very least benefit from the murderous rampage with some good laughs and cheap shots, I mean bar shots that drop to $2 when the killer strikes again. Last night I caught (pun somewhat intended) Glam Gam Productions’ latest offering, the self-described burlesque murder mystery If Looks Could Kill, They Will, which runs again tonight and tomorrow.

If a typical Glam Gam show is…

Ascension @Les Territoires: Simone Rochon on the conundrum of creating

“We have this idea of what is ‘wild’ and ‘untouched’, une nature vierge. As soon as we depict or represent it, it’s not untouched anymore. I’ve aesthetized it, fabricated and put my influence in it”. Using this basic idea as a springboard, Montreal-based artist Simone Rochon put together Ascension, an exhibit that acknowledges the futility of her artist-self’s desire to re-create nature…

If Looks Could Kill, They Most Certainly Will This Weekend

Have you ever thought to yourself: “I really love playing Clue but I wish there was more nudity”? If so, this weekend head to Cafe Cleopatre and catch If Looks Could Kill…They Will.

It’s the new show from Glam Gam Productions, the same group that brought us the sexy Halloween fright-fest Nightmare on Main Street, the raunchy holiday treat Tits the Season and even the Montreal incarnation of SlutWalk. If Looks Could Kill is billed as a burlesque murder mystery…

Google brain, robo-wives and droopy boobs: yay for crayons!

Sasha Manoli has done it again. She’s created a hilarious concept and brought it to life with Friday night’s Crayon Party! show. I last saw Sasha at Le Belmont where another one of her creative gems, the Liar Liar Show, was being held. This time around, the crowd was snugly huddled around small round tables in the cozy interior of Theatre St-Catherine; a more intimate space where you can get to know your table-neighbours by stealing glances over your shoulder at their magnificent crayon drawings and realizing…

Crayon Party!: kick-start your weekend with a rainbow mess

Remember how many hours you spent as a kid colouring with crayons, and how much fun you had?? Sixteen rainbow shades, all standing tall and still with slightly blunted points, silently waiting for grubby little fingers to grind them down to a one inch stub. It was always the best colors that met this fate, like jungle green, hot magenta and dandelion. Crayons! Such fun! One waxy whiff of a brand new box and I revert to five years old. If at this moment you’re contemplating rushing out the door to the nearest DeSerres to buy yourself a box of crayons, then good, do it! But finish…

Ascension exhibit @ Les Territoires promises to transcend boundaries

Isn’t it just about that time where everyone feels like getting out of the city? Look no further than Les Territoires’s exhibit Ascension for a beautiful visual and mental escape. The exhibit is set to open at the gallery this Thursday and will feature drawings of untouched landscapes and the artist’s impressive large-scale reconstruction of a mountain out of polystyrene. Being the centerpiece of the exhibit, the mountain is an accurate depiction of Rochon’s world view in which her artistic output is inextricably tied up with the desire to recreate natural beauty and the inescapable need (at times) for using synthetic materials to reach new creative heights…

Four Days of Madness…The Good Kind: A Report from the 2011 Buffalo Infringement Festival

As the bus takes me back to Montreal away from a weekend away from the ordinary at the 2011 Buffalo Infringement Festival, one thought seems to dominate my mind: next year, I’m going to go for longer. I’ve been for longer, in fact last year I spent a little over a week at the BIF, but this year circumstances limited my time there to four days. Four wonderful days jam-packed with underground art and chillin in the park, sometimes both at the same time. A mere ten minutes after arriving in town, I was in The Bend watching Infringement cab driver (yes, the fest has its own cabbie), visual artist and now spoken-word comedy artist Scott “Skitchy” Steele…

Buffalo Infringement Festival: Just Get There, They’ll Do The Rest

For those readers who live in Western New York State, Toronto or the area surrounding it who are looking for something to do, for my fellow Montrealers and friends in New York City who can travel a bit and for pretty much anyone into original and underground theatre, independent music and bearing a will to be artistic and different, I have one destination to recommend for the next ten days: Buffalo, New York and in particular the seventh annual Buffalo Infringement Festival…

Have You Heard? The Papirmasse Postcard Issue is Coming!

For those of you who don’t know, Papirmasse is locally run art collective run by Kirsten McCrea. The goal of the collective is to bring unique and affordable art to the masses. Papirmasse is also heavily involved in the Montreal art community as we have showcased with their appearances at Puces POP and Montreal Nuit Blanche. Papirmasse’s mission being to bring cheap art to everyone operates a subscription service that for 5$/month delivers a new and unique piece of art by a local artist directly to your door. The program has feature great artists…

Zoofest: Who let the animals out?

Zoofest is back for the third year running, carrying in its large clownish arms an assorted mash of comedy, music, satire and performance. It’s the crazier, slightly cooler little cousin of the Just for Laughs festival and looks to be even bigger and busier than before. The idea for Zoofest was originally conceived by Gilbert Rozon, founder of Just for Laughs, who traveled the world’s festival circuit for 25 years, examining different approaches to making festivals. Amalgamating everything eclectic he had learned, Rozon created Zoofest. The festival is a diverse bi-lingual event…

Ctrllab: A Place to Play, A Space to Create

Yep, you know it Montreal’s got an art gallery around every corner with a bar on either side. It’s got an abundance of artistic talent and plenty of galleries to showcase it. But what about art spaces? Places where ideas are incited and projects are created? In the heart of Montreal’s artistic mecca, Ctrllab is pleased to fulfill this need. Located on St. Laurent at Prince Arthur, Ctrllab (“control lab”) is a multi-purpose art space that, unlike a gallery, fosters artistic growth and advocates community involvement…

Infringement Part 3: The End is Near

It was announced to me shortly before the Montreal Infringement Festival started that Anal Pudding were coming to stay at our apartment. Images of this large Buffalo band ripping the shit out of my place were haunting to say the least. Luckily when I eventually met this quirky feacaly themed group, they were ambassadorial in their attitude and friendly-ness. We all hung out and I got a chance to speak to lead singer Kurt who is the main dude when it comes to Buffalo Infringement…