Stuff Seen - On Stage at Galerie Gora

Howdy!



C+

Last night I went to the opening of this show organized by Nightlife Magazine at Galerie Gora some of my disappointment in the show has to do with my understanding of how Galerie Gora does business. Basically it is my understanding that some of the artists pay in order to have an exhibit, and others do not. And then there are incidental costs, such as re-stretching of sent paintings, publication in the flyer called GAM and what I can only assume are other things involved in the normal operations of a gallery. I have asked Mr. Gora if I could interview him for this blog, he graciously said yes, and I am looking forward to clarifying things with him.

But I digress. I had assumed that the On Stage exhibit was going to be the only exhibit happening. I was wrong. There were two other things that were considered completely separate exhibitions happening at the same time. I couldn't figure out how or why things had been hung the way they were. There was no clear (or even murky) connection between the work of Colette Banaigs and the 'Rock Show' although they were all in the same space. The group show appeared to be a collection of artists thrown together because they all happened to have paintings in the same room of the gallery, and then there were some unlabeled and unknown paintings floating around elsewhere that really confused me even more.

But I seem to have digressed even more. I hope I have it all off my chest now. The 'Rock Show' was a nice enough collection of (as they state) 'Montreal's Music Scene.' Although I am not entirely certain when and how Oklahoma became part of Montreal, otherwise why would a picture of the Flaming Lips be included?

As I told pretty much anyone who cared to listen to me, I found the hanging of the show to be a little willy-nilly, more like a checklist of who is 'cool' than a means to see a variety of different photographers' work. I would have preferred to have seen the work grouped by photographer, and the photographer's name more prominently displayed than that of the band being photographed.

Then if it was being presented as a checklist of who is 'cool' I would have liked to have seen pictures of (on the Franco tip) Les Trois Accords, Les Cowboys Fringants and Eric Lapointe. And for the squareheads in the house how about some Patrick Watson, the Besnard Lakes and the Adam Brown (apologies if there actually were pictures of any of those bands there, I'm working off the list funished in the magazine).

Here's to hoping that when they show it elsewhere the kinks will have been worked out, 'cause overall, like any of the bands pictured, I really would like to see this exhibit succeed.