Algonquin artist Caroline Monnet opens new exhibition commissioned by Walter Phillips Gallery

Like ships in the night
An exhibition by Caroline Monnet
January 26 – May 6, 2018
Walter Phillips Gallery (107 Tunnel Mountain Drive Banff, Alberta, Canada)
banffcentre.ca/walter-phillips-gallery |  @walterphillipsgallery |  facebook.com/WalterPhillipsGallery

BANFF, AB, November  28, 2017 –  Walter Phillips Gallery at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is pleased to present Like ships in the night, a solo-exhibition by Montréal-based, Algonquin visual artist Caroline Monnet. Guest curated by Peta Rake, Like ships in the night features new video works and installations by Monnet, supported by the 2017 Walter Phillips Gallery Indigenous Commission Award. The exhibition is free and open to all from January 26 – May 6, 2018, with an opening reception Friday, January 26 from 6 until 9 p.m. at Walter Phillips Gallery. 

Monnet is the second recipient of the Indigenous Commission Award, which supports the creation of original works by Indigenous Canadian artists.

Monnet’s multidisciplinary practice demonstrates a keen interest in communicating complex ideas around Indigenous identity and bicultural living through the examination of cultural histories. Her work is often minimalistic, and uses industrial materials to create unique hybrid forms that combines a vocabulary of traditional visual-cultures with tropes of modernist abstraction. 

Bringing into play sculpture and video, Monnet will create an installation that aims to demonstrate dichotomies in social, cultural, and political identities, resulting in a critique of the colonial, industrial, and economic interchange between Canada and Europe. 

Like ships in the night speaks to the interconnectedness and the diversity of views that shapes our place within the world while shedding light upon the given historical and cultural complexities of the contemporary colonial context. 

The title emerges from the saying, "like ships in the night" that describes how signals in the dark are often the sole way of communicating across large divides — geographically, culturally, and interpersonally. The saying, "like ships in the night" also speaks to transient relationships, missed connections, and attempts to draw lines between conversations and objects that might be obscured from one another. 

The 2016 award recipient was Nadia Myre, a visual artist from Québec and an Algonquin member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation. 

Walter Phillips Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from 12:30 until 5 p.m. Group tours of exhibitions may be arranged. Please call Walter Phillips Gallery at 403.762.6281 for additional information or to arrange an appointment.

The Walter Phillips Gallery Indigenous Commission Award is generously supported by RBC.

For information about current exhibitions at Walter Phillips Gallery, visit banffcentre.ca/walter-phillips-gallery

About Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity: Founded in 1933, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is a learning organization built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and creative development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become the global organization leading in arts, culture, and creativity across dozens of disciplines. From our home in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to inspire everyone who attends our campus – artists, leaders, and thinkers – to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to society through cross-disciplinary learning opportunities, world-class performances, and public outreach. banffcentre.ca

About Caroline Monnet: Caroline Monnet is a multidisciplinary artist of Algonquin ancestry from Outaouais, Québec. Her work demonstrates a keen interest in communicating complex ideas around Indigenous identity and bicultural living through the examination of cultural histories. Monnet has exhibited in various venues such as the Palais de Tokyo, Paris and Haus der Kulturen, Berlin for Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid; Toronto International Film Festival; Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York; Cannes Film Festival; Sundance Film Festival, Park City; Tampere Film Festival; and Arsenal and Museum of Contemporary Arts, Montréal. 

Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Axenéo7, Gatineau; Indigenous Art Biennale, Montréal; and Contemporary Native Art Biennial: Culture Shift, Art Mûr and McCord Museum, Montréal. Her next exhibitions include solo-presentations at Action Art Actuel, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and Like ships in the night at Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Monnet has received awards and accolades including the Cinéfondation Cannes Film Festival Residency (2016-2017), the Golden Sheaf Award, Yorkton Film Festival (2016), and was nominated for the 2016 Canadian Screen award for Best Short Drama. In 2014 - 2016 she was the artist in residence at Arsenal Contemporary Art, Montréal. Monnet holds a BA in Communication and Sociology from the University of Ottawa and University of Granada, Spain. She currently lives in Montréal, and is a founding member of artist collective ITWÉ. carolinemonnet.ca