Red Bird Studios Vernissage

Red Bird Studios at General 54

General 54 is very excited to host the very first group show
(outside the Red Bird itself) for Montreal's Red Bird Studios.

Red Bird is a artist run arts space in Montreal's Mile End district.
This exhibiton will showcase the work of this diverse group of
painters, sculptors, graphic designers and silk screeners, each one
exploring their individual practice and methodology within the material constraints of a 1' x 1' canvas board. more info below!

Vernissage: Thursday June 18th 7pm 2009
Show: June 18th – July 19th
Where: General 54, 54 St-Viateur O
more info: 514-271-2129 www.general 54.com

The vernissage will double as a “gate warming” party for
our new hand-welded iron gate by Montreal artist Tibourg Timar.
So come toast a new era of safety for the store.
And see some lovely art!

As always, with cake supplied by Cocoa Locale and 10% off
everything in the store!

more info on the Red Bird:

The Red Bird Gallery and Studios is a not-for-profit, artist-run space located in Mile-End’s former industrial garment district. Founded in 2005, the Red Bird aims to support the growth and expansion of the Mile-End area's active visual and performance arts community. By offering an interdisciplinary and functional space that brings together varying art practices and methods, the Red Bird promotes individual artistic creation while also stimulating dialogue and exchange between artists.

There are currently thirty artists working in eight studios in the Red Bird. Artists include: Sarah Courtemanche, Dan Buller, Kit Malo, Oksana, Rebecca Rosen, Jayce Yam, Mark Dixon, Julien Ceccaldi, Katie Earle, John Player, Andrea Kastner, Colin Lyons, Corrie Peterson, Kim Kielhofner, Naomi Cook, Lisa Wilson, Daniel Nessler, Rachel Berger, Becky Emlaw, Shannon Kelly, Konan Cook, and others...

www.redbirdstudios.org

gate 54 in effect

Thanks to our welder artist friend Thibourg, we are finally safe from the vile scumbags who've been repeatedly breaking into the store. The bad news: we have been broken into 3 times in the last year and we are sick and freaking tired of trudging out in the dead of night to clean up broken glass and scattered stock. But no more! The good news: we've just installed the most wicked metal gate ever to protect the front door. It's sort of 60's scrap metal commune meets art-nouveau and we are love love loving it. Who knew safety could be so good looking. Thanks Thibourg for taking a terrible situation and giving it artistic merit! And did we mention that we also now have a kick-ass burglar alarm (it went off by accident last week... and the police were there in minutes! They were none to pleased, but it was nice to know they actually do come). So whoever you are out there harshin our mellow by breakin in, STOP IT! We are armed to the teeth and are no longer depending on karma alone to keep us safe. So say we all!

General 54 Vernissage: Naomi Cook

Illustrator and Red Bird Galerist Naomi Cook will be hosting a vernissage at the General this Thursday night with drinks, and cake and such. The fun starts at 7pm.

In the coming months, Naomi will also be curating a series of theme shows starting in June with a Red Bird Galery group exhibit (Red Bird is a grouping of artist work spaces she founded and manages and which is home to some very interesting folks in the area).

more info on Naomi: www.naomibcook.com
more info on Red Bird: www.redbirdstudios.org

New art at the General: collagist Jaynus O'Donnell

We are changing the art at General 54 this week with exciting new works by collagist and Local 23 employee Jaynus O'Donnell.

The vernissage is this Thursday April 23rd (7pm onwards) which will also double as Jaynus' birthday party! Happy Birthday Ms Jaynus!

Here's a note she wrote about her work and this show:

I collect, read, look at, destroy and reconfigure children's pictorial encyclopedias in a pseudo-conscious analytic process. I use humour, absurdity, self-reflexivity and reconstruction to create bizarre, yet familiar worlds from images in the encyclopedias. This process creates tension between ways of transmitting and disseminating knowledge, particularly from visual sources; knowledge stemming from or used to create visual culture is shown to be constructed and dynamic with multiple and layered meaning, rather than static and absolute.

Hearts on Parade

This solid silver "cardio" necklace by Missy Industry is one of my favourite things in the store right now. Here are a some more heart/loving themed things just in time for Valentines day:

Brazen "Loved" necklace



Frug heart-shaped locket

meticulously stitched heart pin by the very capable Jen Ham


nothing says loving like hand-made underwear. by the adorable Supayana