OHT Gallery Boston

Previous Exhibits

New Work

Michael Dumontier

Installation

Nick Z

April 7 - May 13, 2006
Receptions: April 7 and May 5, 5:30 - 7:30 pm

O·H+T gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by Michael Dumontier who is a founding member of the Royal Art Lodge, the acclaimed Winnipeg-based artist collective. Also on view in the Project Room will be an installation of paintings by Nick Z, the Boston artist whose work was featured in the 19th Drawing Show at the Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts.

Michael Dumontier's small, spare works depict frail objects and forlorn situations. Low-tech in technique and materials (paper and acrylic on panel), his miniature, abstracted subjects (bare trees, 45 rpm records, birthday candles, pencils, matchsticks, a cracked plate) are humble and poignant. In one untitled piece two skeletal, black branches – one with leaves, one bare – reach towards each other. Another piece depicts a simple, iconic, standing figure composed of matchsticks. Though Dumontier's materials are simple, his workmanship is impeccable. Intricately cut paper pieces, some no larger than a pencil point or thicker than a strand of wire, are arranged to form his elemental images. Dumontier prefers the meaning of his work to remain open to the viewer, as well as to himself, an attitude that seems fitting to the artist's quirky wit and intuitive understanding of the human condition.

Michael Dumontier has exhibited his work internationally in solo exhibitions and with the Royal Art Lodge. Formed in 1996 by six undergraduate Art students from the University of Manitoba, the group continues to meet every Wednesday night in their warehouse studio, where they have produced collaborative drawings, mixed media works, paintings, dioramas, dolls, puppets, kites, musical instruments, compact discs, records, and performance sets. This is Dumontier's first solo show at O·H+T gallery where was included in the 2004 group show Happy.

Ex-graffiiti artist Nick Z, will continue his gallery-based work with a combination of paintings on canvas and wall installation in O·H+T's Project Room. Nick Z's naïve imagery and street art style have the narrative purity and psychological acuteness of children's drawing, yet they are not unsophisticated. Influenced by what he refers to as "the soft side of rap", the artist skillfully executes his strange, friendly, squiggle characters, atmospheric backgrounds, and enigmatic bits of text. This is Nick Z's first show at O·H+T gallery.