Group Exhibition

Faig Ahmed
Nicolas Baier
Genesis Belanger
Sascha Braunig
Graham Caldwell
Douglas Coupland
Cynthia Daignault
John De Andrea
Pierre Dorion
Tracey Emin
Dorian FitzGerald

Sayre Gomez
Alonsa Guevara
Rodney Graham
Anish Kapoor
Bharti Kher
Anselm Kiefer
Kapwani Kiwanga
Wanda Koop
Nicolas Lachance
Oliver Laric
Jennifer Lefort

Caroline Mesquita
Laure Prouvost
Jon Rafman
Ugo Rondinone
Kathleen Ryan
Emily Mae Smith
Josh Sperling
Amalia Ulman
Eric Yahnker
Xu Zhen

This summer, Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal presents a selection of works from its collection under the theme ‘Alternate Realities’. At a time where the virtual collides with the real world, reality multiplies itself. In a world of accelerated mediatization where images are everflowing, the truth becomes increasingly hard to decipher.

The work of art is the perfect exemplification of a derivation of reality and a presentation of the infinite possibilities of the imaginary. Closely linked to the idea of illusion, works of art play with concrete reality, punctuating it with contrasts and asymmetries which act as layers of experience making up the fabric of our existence. In his time, Plato had already linked the concept of illusion to art by calling out its insidious ability to deceive man. Serving us an altered conception of reality, art would keep us from accessing reality, thus preventing us from understanding and engaging with the real world in order to behave well in society. But aren’t artworks rather microcosms of alternate realities allowing us to better grasp our own reality? 

Alternate Realities is an opportunity to sharpen our eyes by challenging them with a variety of artworks flirting with the idea of reality and deceitful appearances, such as the realist paintings of Alonsa Guevara and Sayre Gomez, the surrealist works of Genesis Belanger and Emily Mae Smith, and the autobiographically-natured works of Tracey Emin, opening a reflection on what is real, as well as the many ways of processing and representing reality.