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Liliana Berezowsky
Canadian Sculptor.

born in 1944 in Krakow, Poland immigrated to Canada in 1948 graduated from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario with a B.A. in Sociology, obtained a diploma in ceramics technology from John Abbott College, Montréal, Québec, and a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Concordia University, Montréal, Québec

Liliana Berezowsky has described the intention behind her sculpture as the desire to defamiliarize, to create concrete forms that are undoubtedly solid and real, yet that upset our understanding of reality. Seeming to revolve around a notion of ambiguity, these sculptures appear to exist as active doubt, partly created by the unsettling juxtaposition of materials which she uses. Taking inspiration from today’s industrial landscape, particularly in her use of steel as an element of beauty and tactility, Berezowsky twists the shapes and materials of machinery, creating new forms that contradict their origin with their own inability to function. Jenyk IV (1990) is a complicated structure that involves connecting a bunch of floor-level iron spikes to four larger, hanging metal forms, using four cords that travel up to the ceiling from the spikes, and across a room to the hanging structures. On a personal level Berezowsky expressed in this piece the breakdown of her marriage and its impact on her family members, represented by the four hung pieces of metal. It invokes a critique of male and female divisions, authority, and issues of labour (the spikes on the floor relating visually to the needle trades of early Montréal). The piece is also a commentary on the hierarchy of nature, the existence of large forms which are, in fact, constructed of many smaller entities. "That is clearly the story of our artifacts, from swords and ploughshares to computers and such massive and complex instruments as particle accelerators. No matter how complex and ingenious such things are, their origin, their persistence and their functions depend upon being assemblages of smaller entities arranged in a certain order. But it is also the story--or part of the story--of ourselves as organisms . . ." (Berezowsky, 1998). In Antigone VII (1991), a gigantic soaring steel structure shaped like the wing of an airplane, Berezowsky refers to the connection between myth and technology, inserting a skeletal wooden flap, reminiscent of the wings of Icarus, into the powerful steel wing. It also refers, on a personal level, to Berezowsky’s own survival of a plane crash at eighteen. The title, recalling Antigone, again goes back to myth and Antigone’s choosing of the laws of Zeus over the laws of men, redefining the rules for herself to make them fit her needs, even if it meant her ultimate acceptance of death. Her large-scale work includes numerous public pieces, such as a sculpture on the corner of Laurier and Esplanade in Montréal entitled A la lisière du ciel (1990) and a work for the international sculptural symposium in Longueuil, Québec, in 1995. Around that time, she began to explore the effect of smaller formats and the addition of text, both inviting viewers to experience the work more intimately, and baffling them in her continued use of ambiguous objects. Such works include L’ecriture blanche (1994), a small white book enclosed in a glass case on top of a steel table, and When I say I love you I am looking at my reflection in your eyes (1994), consisting of a teardrop-shaped mirror, inscribed with the title of the piece, sitting on a steel pedestal. In 1998, Berezowsky created the installation If I give the image an architecture, can it solidify the passing moment. . . using sleek black columns posed in a room where the walls were decorated by her with architectural markings, bits of archway and window. She refers to the column as sexual symbol, to its ability to represent a gateway or a passage into another world, and to the Biblical references to pillars as symbols of strength, and order. Projecting onto the wall slides of human bodies, engaged in loving caresses, Berezowsky also comments on the relationships between body and architecture, architectural interior and exterior mirroring human interior and exterior. The body’s physical wear, and its ability and love’s ability to endure over time, is pitted against the strength of the architecture that is built to withstand the elements and to last throughout time. Currently Berezowsky is a fine arts instructor at Montréal’s Concordia University.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1998 	Centre international d'art contemporain de Montréal (C.I.A.C), Montréal, Québec

1996             	Espace 502, Montréal, Québec

"Je suis une guerrière . . ." Galerie l'oeil de poisson, Québec, Québec

1995              	Take Out Your Stories and Trade Them Like Seeds Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto, Ontario

Épandez vos histoires, troquez-les comme des semences Performance: Little Red Riding Hood Axe Néo-7, Hull, Québec

1993            	Reweaving the Web Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

Expression Gallery, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec

1992 	Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto, Ontario

1991 	Brenda Wallace Gallery, Montréal, Québec

Bishop's University, Lennoxville, Québec

1989 	Galerie d'art centre Saidye Bronfman/Gallery of the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, Montréal, Québec

Glendon Gallery, York University, Toronto, Ontario

1987   	John A. Schweitzer Gallery, Montréal, Québec

1985 	John A. Schweitzer Gallery, Montréal, Québec

1984 	Cement / Steel Galerie d'art centre Saidye Bronfman/Gallery of the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, Montréal, Québec

1980 	Centre culturel, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec

1979 	Marks/Materials Gallery 08, John Abbott College, Montréal, Québec

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1998 	Offrandes VI (benefit exhibition) Societé de musique contemporain du Québec, Montréal, Québec

Temps composés Musée d'art de Joliette, Joliette, Québec

Arts-travaganza Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec

1997 	Exhibition of the Permanent Collection Musée du Québec, Québec, Québec

En Cause: Brancusi (benefit exhibition) Axe Néo-7, Hull, Québec

Offrandes III (benefit exhibition) Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, Montréal, Québec

Concordia University Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec

1996 	Art public - modèles réduits Vieux palais, Saint-Jérome, Québec

Exhibition of the Permanent Collection Musée de beaux-arts de Montréal, Montréal, Québec

Concordia University Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal Québec

1995 	The Tearing of Angels Expression Gallery, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec

Centre international d'art contemporain de Montréal (C.I.A.C.) (benefit exhibition) Montréal, Québec

Terre gravide. . . émergence Colloque international de sculpture, Longueuil, Québec

Gifts 1989-1994 Musée d'art contemporain, Montréal, Québec

The Common Hand Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto, Ontario

1994 	De Causis et Tractatibus (benefit exhibition) Axe Néo-7, Hull, Québec

The Tearing of Angels Musée régionale de la Côte-Nord, Sept-Îles, Québec

Répresentation en sculpture: théâtre d'une répétition: 2e salon international de sculpture extèrieure de Montréal, Le Vieux Port de Montréal / The Old Port, Montréal, Québec

1993 	Biennale of Drawings Prints and Paper Alma, Québec

Les ateliers s'exposent Cobalt Art, Montréal, Québec

Benefit Auction Musée d'art contemporain, Montréal, Québec

1992      	Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition Concordia University Art Gallery, Montréal, Québec

Sculpture Symposium Trois Rivières, Québec

Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto, Ontario

1991 	Drawing on the Permanent Collection Concordia University Art Gallery, Montréal, Québec

Silence Elles Tournent (benefit exhibition) Montréal, Québec

Recent Acquisitions Concordia University Art Gallery, Montréal, Québec

1990       	Expressions plurielles Musée du Québec, Grand théâtre du Québec, Québec, Québec

Visions 90 Centre international d'art contemporain de Montréal (C.I.A.C), Place du Parc Montréal, Québec

Estampes Graff Gallery, Montréal, Québec

1989 	Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition Concordia University, Montréal, Québec

1989-88  	Berlin/Montréal Galerie d'art centre Saidye Bronfman/Gallery of the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts; Lavalin Collection of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Québec; Goethe Institute, Montréal, Québec

A.E.G. Complex and Westende Banhoff, West Berlin, Germany

1988 	Espace Segal Steinberg, Montréal, Québec

Galerie Trois Points, Montréal, Québec

1987  	Femmes forces Musée du Québec, Québec, Québec

De fer et d'acier Lavalin Collection of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Québec

1986 	Art Bank of Canada, Australia

Des mots pour créer Saint Leonard, Québec

Artists choose artists John A. Schweitzer Gallery, Montréal, Québec

Tout l'art de monde Québec; Sherbrooke; Gatineau; Mont Laurier; Université de Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec (travelling)

1985 	The Totemic Impulse John A. Schweitzer Gallery, Montréal, Québec

Tout l'art de monde

Regards Place du Parc, Montréal, Québec

1984 	Deuxième Salon des galeries d'art Montréal, Québec

1982 	'83-'84 V.A.V. Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec

1978 	Gallery 08, John Abbott College, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec

COLLECTIONS Alcan Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, Ontario Concordia University, Montréal, Québec Government of Québec, Ministry of Culture and Immigration, Québec, Québec, Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, British Columbia Laurentian University Museum, Sudbury, Ontario Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Québec Musée d'art de Joliette, Joliette, Québec Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Montréal, Québec Musée du Québec, Québec, Québec National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan Steinberg Corporation Trisam Corporation

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Asselin, Hedwidge. "Berezowsky et la sculpture-construction." Espace 6, no.3 (Spring 1990): 47.

Baert, Renée. "On Liliana Berezowsky." Canadian Art (Winter 1989): 86.

Berezowsky, Liliana. "From the private . . . to the public." Espace (Fall 1994): 43-45.

Bogardi, George. Liliana Berezowsky. Montréal, Québec: Centre Saidye Bronfman, 1989.

Dumont, Jean. "Objects and Reflections." Espace 37 (Fall 1996): 5-8.

McGrath, Donald. "Liliana Berezowsky." Parachute 56 (October/ November/ December 1989): 67-68.