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Richard-Max Tremblay,

Richard-Max Tremblay, RCA, (1952-) is a Canadian artist and photographer. He is the recipient of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts' 2015 RCA Trust Award, the 2003 Prix Louis-Comtois, and, as cinematographer of Gugging, the 1996 Special Jury Prize, International Festival of Films on Art and Pedagogy (UNESCO Paris). Tremblay's work is found in the collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Musée d’art de Joliette, the City of Montreal and the Canada Council for the Arts' Art Bank.

Career Highlights
Richard-Max Tremblay (1952) was born in the Eastern-Township community of Brompton, Quebec. As a young art student a viewing of a painting by Pierre Soulages at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art made a lasting impression. He moved to Montreal to study art in 1972 and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1975. He continued art studies in London in 1979-80 and received a post-graduate Diploma in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College of Art and Design (now Goldsmiths, University of London). On his return to Montreal, Tremblay continued to paint and exhibited a series on London-deckchairs Les chaises in 1984 and portraits Têtes in 1985 at Galerie 13. At this time Tremblay began to explore photography and his images of artists Guido Molinari, Yves Gaucher, and Betty Goodwin were exhibited as Portraits 1983-1987 at John A. Schweitzer Gallery. In 1987 he was commissioned by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec to photograph recipients of the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas for the 1988 exhibition L'art au Québec depuis Pellan: une histoire des prix Borduas. Solo exhibitions of his work were held in 1994 at the Musée d’art de Joliette and Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts (Montreal). From 1993-9 he was cinematographer, editor, and co-writer of the video Gugging (1996), on artists at the Gugging psychiatric residence near Vienna, Austria. By 1999 Tremblay's practice also included painting installations exhibited as Hors-Champs at the Montreal Telegraph Building. He also exhibited there with Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Raymond Gervais, and John Heward in the 2000 multi-media exhibition on sound Montréal Télégraphe: le son iconographe which he co-curated with Louise Provencher. In 2001 an exhibition of black and white paintings Entre noir et blanc at Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts was followed by a second series Contretemps at Galerie Art Mûr in 2004. In 2010 Tremblay's photographs of windows in abandoned buildings were exhibited as Les tanneries at Association Artmandat in Barjols, France, and as Windows in 2011 at Galerie Division in Montreal. That year Montreal Museum of Fine Arts curator Diane Charbonneau organized a Tremblay photographic retrospective Tête-à-tête: Portraits of Artists, with 20 images from the museum's collection, including those of Francine Simonin, Michel Goulet, John A. Schweitzer, Manon de Pauw, and BGL. To coincide with the exhibition, a monograph of his work written by André Lamarre ''Richard-Max Tremblay. Portrait.'' was published by Éditions du passage. A Tremblay retrospective was also held in 2011 at the Maison des arts et de la culture de Brompton. In 2014 he was artist-in‐residence at the Canada Council for the Arts' Paris Studio.

In 2018 Tremblay lived and worked in Montreal.

Style and Philosophy
Known for his photographic portraits of artists, Tremblay's early images of Martha Townsend and Fernand Leduc feature face and hands. By 1986 his photographs of Betty Goodwin, John Heward and Pierre Soulages include studio shots to "introduce the work of the artist in the portrait." Other photographic series include windows of derelict buildings and empty, stacked boxes, a comment on the disappearance of archival records in a digital era. Tremblay described photography and painting as preservative, "acts of resistance against time", which are also "consequential acts that lead elsewhere, that sweep us forward." He also described his use of photography as either "a step in the creation of a photographic work" or as a "painting which is inconceivable without the photographic juncture". Also known for figurative art, Tremblay's early painting series Têtes (1985) was described as "anti-portraits", while later compositions of "heads and gestural blurrings" link photographic realism to abstract-lyricism. Recent paintings of Paris, Berlin or Venice also reference as metaphors mirrors or windows and the comcept of hidden and revealed. In 1975 Tremblay wrote, "I am fond of the theme of the black curtain... about showing what prevents you from seeing." His sources of inspiration include Renaissance art, philosophical novels such as The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, as well as works by Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, and W. G. Sebald.

Recognition
An elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, Tremblay is the recipient of the 2015 RCA Trust Award. He was also awarded the 2003 Prix Louis-Comtois for "excellence within the visual arts" by the City of Montreal and the Contemporary Art Galleries Association (AGAC). Known for photography, painting, and the creative "synergy and fusion" between the two, Voir journalist Matthieu Petit wrote that Tremblay's "signature lies in photographic and pictorial parallels, but also in the enigmas that he enjoys developing." Art reviewer Françoise Belu noted in his work a sense "of being and non-being", which Nancy Pedri described in Circa Art as "showing and hiding, the curtain and the motif". Noting the viewer's role in completing the staging or mis-en-scene, Vie des Arts critic Jean-Jacques Bernier described his work as "moving from the particular to the general or universal". Also recognized as a cinematographer, Tremblay's video "Gugging", co-written and produced with Anne-Marie Rocher, received the 1996 Special Jury Prize – International Festival of Films on Art and Pedagogy (UNESCO Paris, France).

Photography Books

 * Laurin, Danielle; and Tremblay, Richard-Max. Raymonde April. Photographe. Éditions Varia, 2006. ISBN: 9782896060290 Web.
 * Morency, Catherine; and Tremblay, Richard-Max. Marie Chouinard. Chorégraphe. Éditions Varia, 2006. ISBN: 9782896060337. Web.
 * Raymond, Dyane; and Tremblay, Richard-Max. Jean Derome. L'homme musique. Éditions Varia, 2007. ISBN: 9782896060412. Web.
 * Jasmin, Stéphanie; Tremblay, Richard-Max. Michel Goulet. Sculpteur. Éditions Varia, 2007. ISBN: 9782896060399. Web.

Education and Career
Catherine Farish was born in 1951 in London, England. Her father was British-Canadian, her mother Italian, and her family resettled in Montreal, Canada, during the mid-1950s. She received a diploma in Fine Arts from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School in 1976 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (cum laude) from Concordia University in 1983. A founding member of the Montreal print collective Atelier Circulaire, she studied with master printer François-Xavier Marange in 1986. Her early work was figurative and a print inspired by Leonard Cohen's poem "Gift" was awarded Grand Prize in a 1992 Loto-Quebec competition. In 1994 Farish's first abstract exhibition, Salisbury Plain at Galerie Simon Blais (Montreal), drew positive reviews in Voir, and Parcours Arts Visuels. Solo shows followed at Open Studio (Toronto), Galeriwan (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Hope Corman Gallery (Victoria BC), Autre Équivoque (Ottawa ON), and at Cynthia Reeves' Spheris Gallery (Walpole NH). By 1997 Farish had replaced the central subject with multiple elements in the series Primo pensiero exhibited at Galerie Simon Blais. She also participated in the international group exhibitions: The Levee: Where the Blues Began shown in Canada, the United States, South Africa, Japan, and Korea; Veille at Bibliothèque national du Québec in Montreal, at the Boston Printmakers 50th Anniversary Exhibition, and at Galerie Echancrure in Brussels, Belgium.

Following an art residency at Asilah, Morocco, Farish adopted a North African palette of vermillion and orange. This new work was exhibited in 2001 as Dépaysment at Galerie Simon Blais, and the following year as Persimmon Prints at Spheris Gallery in New York City and Walpole, New Hampshire. In 2007 she exhibited with Louis-Pierre Bougie and François Vincent at Atelier Circulaire's 25th anniversary show where an interest in Asian calligraphy was noted. In 2009 she began to experiment with player piano rolls as surface and theme which led to the solo exhibitions Notes in 2011 and Blue in 2015 at Galerie Simon Blais. That year Farish's series of circular compositions Many Moons was exhibited at Cynthia-Reeves' New Hampshire gallery and at 2016 Pulse New York. In 2017 her Salisbury Plain series was exhibited at the UK Salisbury International Arts Festival. She was also selected by the UK multimedia project Cicatrix to represent Canada in the 2018 WW1 commemorative exhibition at the Swindon Art Gallery and Museum. In 2016 Farish lived and worked near Montreal, Quebec.

Technique
Farish's multi-layer monotypes and prints are characterized by "luminous tones and contrasts surgically presented within mixed media: etching on copper and cardboard, collage with Chinese paper, drawing or added pigment." Created through multiple runs with found objects used as plates or as collage materials, she works in stages. Following an initial idea or primo pensiero, Farish makes plates from found objects, such as recycled cardboard or pieces of discarded steel, which is then marked or manipulated. She prints on Arches paper and works intuitively, often layering and mounting printed handmade paper, washi, as one-of-a-kind works of art. Her method of working allows her to develop "variations inside a compositional frame" for each series: Salisbury Plain (1993–1994), Primo pensiero (1995–1997), Dépaysement (2000–2001), Persimmon Prints (2002), Esquisse païenne (2004) et Territoires intimes (2006), Piano Roll Project (2009-2011). Likened to maps, topographies and aerial views, her prints "parallel the processes of continuous change and transformation we see in our environment". In the journal Vie des arts Bernard Levy describes her work as autobiographical and an exploration of space and time: "The space filled with familiar objects, streets, countryside, a wall, the roof of a house... the time imposed by History".

Recognition
Elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2008, Farish is recognized for "her own unique visual lexicon" and experimental technique. In Art New England, Craig Stockwell wrote: Farish's process is "spontaneous and intuitive: things are torn, tried, painted, added, subtracted, but the the surfaces of the works are seamless." For Elissa Barnard of The Halifax Chronicle Herald: "The rust and pale gold works, artfully composed in scrawling lines, letter-shapes and splotches, are like ancient maps one keeps exploring". Art critic Robert Enright described within her work "restrained tonal reductions of artists like Robert Motherwell and Joseph Beuys". Vie des arts reviewer André Seleanu noted Zen-like "qualities that seem diametrically opposed: an intense emotion rendered by warm colors (ochres, carmines, red brick and blood) coexist with a tranquility created by flat areas of white and gray." Dorota Kozinska reviewed her work as: "Elegant, abstract works  on  paper... converse in a quiet language of mixed media," to conclude: "A highly intuitive artist, Farish allows the image to form itself, a tiny gesture at a time, one small step after another, only to finish it with the audacity and assurance of a master printer."

Described in Quebec Culture magazine as "one of Québec’s most innovative contemporary printmakers", Farish is "known for having perfected many collograph techniques including carborundum, acrylic textured mediums, and for using nontraditional surfaces and found objects." Early in her career, Farish worked with François-Xavier Marange at Atelier Circulaire on experimental processes such as drawing on Chine-collé, as well as collage with printed, torn, or crumbled traditional handmade paper or washi. In 2008 she was elected to and exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 2010 she became a resident fellow at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ballycastle, Ireland, and was a 2014 artist-in-resident at St. Michael's Printshop in St. John's, Newfoundland. In 2013, under Québec’s Integration of Art and Architecture Program, she was awarded commissions for two public-work installations, including one at Cégep de Sherbrooke. An educator, Farish taught printmaking and drawing at the National Theatre School of Canada (1995-2011) in Montreal, and at the Great River Arts Institute in Walpole, Vermont. In 2013 she curated a exhibition of prints by François-Xavier Marange at Atelier Circulaire. In 2017 she was an instructor at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ballycastle, Ireland.

Peter Hoffer
Peter Hoffer (1965-) is a Canadian artist known for his painterly landscapes. Hoffer's "deconstructivist" approach – characterized by layers of paint and fragmented, reflective surfaces – challenges artistic conventions of representation. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Quebec City) and galleries in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, London, Paris, Berlin, Boston and New York.

Life and Career
Peter Hoffer was born in Brantford, Ontario, on ? ?, 1965. He studied painting and sculpture in 1990 at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto and at the University of Guelph where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1993. After a sojourn in New York City, he studied sculpture at Concordia University in Montreal and graduated with a Masters in Fine Art in 1996. His installation Retro Architectural Models, on organic decomposition and urban architecture, was exhibited in Montreal in 1998. Solo exhibitions of his work Paintings? were also held at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery (Montreal), Centre De Créativité Des Salles Du Gesù (Montreal), Rotunda Gallery, Kitchener City Hall.

Following a trip to Paris, ? Hoffer began to experiment with surface textures within landscape. Interested in the physicality of paint he began to "sand, grind, and scour the layers of painted surface". Intrigued by the French Salon practice of revarnishing unsold works, he finished his landscapes with layers of damar varnish and, in ? 1999 began to add 10 to 15 layers of an epoxy and resin finish to create a reflective, dome surface. In 2002-03 solo exhibitions of his work was held at the Maison de la Culture (Montreal), Centre National d’Exposition de Jonquiere, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Quebec QC), and at the Musée de Las Arts de L’Université de Guadalajara (Mexico). Reviewed in art journals and newspapers, in 2007-09 solo exhibitions of Hoffer's work were held in galleries in London, Paris, Montreal, Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Seattle, Memphis, Chicago, and New York and, by 2015, in Amsterdam and Berlin. Public solo exhibitions, Paysages Revisité at Centre d’exposition du Vieux Presbytère (Saint-Bruno QC) and Territoires Imaginés at Maison Hamel-Bruneau (Quebec QC) were also held in 2015. In recent years Hoffer began to experiment with abstract watercolours and deconstructivism within urban poster imagery. These compositions were exhibited as Städtisch Wald at Kurfürstenstrasse Atelier (Berlin).

As of 2017, Hoffer lives in Berlin and at his cottage in Quebec during the summer months.

Work and Style
"Distinguished by mood and sweep of the motif", Hoffer's landscapes are described in The New York Sun as "luminous skies set off by the outline of trees, the dramas of light and shade." Ottawa Citizen reviewer, Peter Simpson, noted: "They have a grey hardiness that projects a grand, vast, transcendent solitude," while a lone hardwood conveys "a vulnerability even in these rocks and rugged greenery" Montreal Gazette art reviewer Lynn Moore noted that the narrative produced by Hoffer's "less than spectacular" subjects – "What caused that break in the tree line on the horizon?" – "encourages the viewer to investigate the anomaly and look for meaning." Hoffer's style and technique have been compared to the atmospheric mist and clouds of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes and to the idealized landscapes of John Constable. Hoffer's colour "surface patterning" also recalls the Romantic artists' experimentation with paint splashes, while his stressed surfaces have been compared to the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder. His painterly drips and blocks of colour have also linked to Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollack and the Colorfield style of Mark Rothko.

For Hoffer: "It is the play between control and intuition that makes these landscapes as much about material and process as about the image." His process mirrors nature's buildup or erosion of paint layers and – "like the terrain" – the surface "is marked, scratched, cracked and seared." His paintings – finished with high gloss varnish or resin – become mirrors which reflects the viewer or environment: "The landscape adopts its surroundings, reflecting them, becoming part of the landscape." The high gloss varnish also serves to protect the landscape which, abused or neglected, is "rediscovered much like an artifact". In recent years Hoffer's work has become "more painterly" with colour splashes or banding within landscapes that fluctuate between "rest" and "discontent". His most recent work includes landscape, birds and figures.

Recognition
Hoffer's work is reviewed in the international art journals Vie des Arts (Montreal), American Arts Quarterly (Boston), and Art Es (Madrid). His landscapes are noted for both artistry, "pitch-perfect tonal sense that evokes real places", as well as message: "There is a sense of painterly surface and medium as well as of literary depth and meaning." Montreal Gazette reviewer Lynn Moore wrote: "While we admire the beauty of the work, we are aware of a modern artist asking us to consider process and the act of creation itself." For reviewer Ève Dorais: Hoffer's technique – layered paint, exposed surfaces and reflective finish – affirms that art "is a construction, a staging, a game of the mind," with viewers as "actors" mirrored within an idyllic landscape. A protective packaging for the precious objet d'art, the gloss finish also serves as a "threshold to another state of mind": "The curious have to step closer, change their perspective and look longer to get past reflections to see the details under the surface glimmer." For Moore, Hoffer's landscapes are: "Personal yet universal. Accessible yet demanding of some analysis." Peter Simpson writing in the Ottawa Citizen concluded: "They are profound works, from an artist with a clear vision."

His work is found in the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Quebec QC) and the German Consulate (Toronto), as well as in such corporate collections as Bombardier Inc, Quebecor Inc, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank National, ING New York, and Merrill Lynch (New York). Hoffer's work is exhibited at such international art fairs as Art Basel, Art Toronto, Art New York, Art Palm Beach, and the Affordable Art Fairs in New York, Stockholm, London, Milan, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Hong Kong.