Stuff Seen - Léopold L. Foulem
Howdy!
B
Another surprise, as we had gone to the Belgo building to see other stuff, but had time to kill and so started wandering around. Galerie Lieu West is a gallery that to my mind doesn't get an awful lot of respect. As far as I can remember (granted a shaky proposition at best) they have never gotten a review in La Presse, The Gazette, Le Devoir, Hour magazine, or Voir, but they continue to plug away showing some pretty gosh darn kick-ass stuff, such as Mr. Foulem's.
I know precious little about Mr. Foulem, save what I gleaned from a quick scan of Google to see if he had been reviewed anyplace. And low and behold, I discover that not only is he a kick-ass artist, but he also has won a bunch of awards, exhibited all over the freakin' world, and in general done everything you're suppossed to in order to "make it" in the art world. Yet, his pieces are selling for $7,500. Personally I think they should be going for about double that, or at least $12,500. After all just down the hall David Tomas' O'Hara's Trip, a 52 second DVD loop is also selling for $7,500, and I don't think that Mr. Tomas has ½ the artistic CV that Mr. Foulem has, nor are any of Mr. Foulem's pieces multiples. Although to be fair, I did not ask if Mr. Tomas' piece came with a video projector.
But enough of the digression, Mr. Foulem, as you can see knows his way around ceramics. I'm not quite enamored of his use of Walt Disney properties, even if they are "found" objects. But the fancy fake teacups and teapots without Mickey and company rocked my world. I was particularly impressed with those that had the fancy ass bases. There's something about placing dollar store schlock next to really impressive and well done china that makes all sorts of things go off behind my eyeballs and inside my brain, Heck, even if you prefer your art to be conceptual up to here, you gotta admit that they are really pretty things. Or if you want, give me an hour or so, and I probably can come up with some conceptual bafflegab and gobbledy gook about how the teacup being full is just a stand-in for the art intelligentsia's inability to make any space for artists outside of their small, petty, bourgeois definitions.
B
Another surprise, as we had gone to the Belgo building to see other stuff, but had time to kill and so started wandering around. Galerie Lieu West is a gallery that to my mind doesn't get an awful lot of respect. As far as I can remember (granted a shaky proposition at best) they have never gotten a review in La Presse, The Gazette, Le Devoir, Hour magazine, or Voir, but they continue to plug away showing some pretty gosh darn kick-ass stuff, such as Mr. Foulem's.
I know precious little about Mr. Foulem, save what I gleaned from a quick scan of Google to see if he had been reviewed anyplace. And low and behold, I discover that not only is he a kick-ass artist, but he also has won a bunch of awards, exhibited all over the freakin' world, and in general done everything you're suppossed to in order to "make it" in the art world. Yet, his pieces are selling for $7,500. Personally I think they should be going for about double that, or at least $12,500. After all just down the hall David Tomas' O'Hara's Trip, a 52 second DVD loop is also selling for $7,500, and I don't think that Mr. Tomas has ½ the artistic CV that Mr. Foulem has, nor are any of Mr. Foulem's pieces multiples. Although to be fair, I did not ask if Mr. Tomas' piece came with a video projector.
But enough of the digression, Mr. Foulem, as you can see knows his way around ceramics. I'm not quite enamored of his use of Walt Disney properties, even if they are "found" objects. But the fancy fake teacups and teapots without Mickey and company rocked my world. I was particularly impressed with those that had the fancy ass bases. There's something about placing dollar store schlock next to really impressive and well done china that makes all sorts of things go off behind my eyeballs and inside my brain, Heck, even if you prefer your art to be conceptual up to here, you gotta admit that they are really pretty things. Or if you want, give me an hour or so, and I probably can come up with some conceptual bafflegab and gobbledy gook about how the teacup being full is just a stand-in for the art intelligentsia's inability to make any space for artists outside of their small, petty, bourgeois definitions.
posted by Zeke's, the Montreal Art Gallery on 7.3.06
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