Caitlin McCormack Art

The Redpath Mansion was built in 1886 for members of the Redpath family – wealthy industrialists who constructed the Lachine Canal and founded the sugar refinery that bears their name. This majestic house was erected in the fabled Golden Square Mile of Montreal. By the mid-20th century, it was one of the few remaining Queen Anne style homes in this city. The Sochaczevski family, purchased it in 1986 and within that year, obtained a license to demolish the building. Approximately 40% of the property was leveled. Organizations such as Heritage Montreal and Save Montreal obtained an injunction to suspend the execution of the license and the destruction of the mansion. It was temporarily saved. In 2014, the Mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre, sided in favour of the Sochaczevski family, granting them the license to level the Redpath Mansion. In a statement to the media, when substantiating his reasoning, Denis Coderre said, “It was too dangerous, so I asked that we demolish the building.” The disappearance of the Redpath Mansion represented a great loss to Montreal’s architectural landscape. Organizations such as Heritage Montreal and Save Montreal, contended that it possessed immense cultural value; and during the course of almost three decades – 1986 to 2014 - struggled to save this rare Queen Anne style home from the wrecking ball. Albeit, the Sochaczevski family argued that it was old and unsafe, and that a restoration of the once stately home would be very costly. During the span marked by the first attempt at a demolition and the final decision by the mayor of Montreal (i.e. 1986 – 2014), The Redpath Mansion’s already dire condition worsened. It stood vacant and exposed to the elements. Nothing to upkeep the house was implemented, neither by the owners, or the city of Montreal; which ultimately compromised its structural viability. The events surrounding the Redpath Mansion, came to my attention in the summer of 2010. It was during a visit to Mount Sinai Hospital, in Montreal, where my father lay stricken by a terminal disease known as pulmonary fibrosis. I came upon a newspaper article in the Montreal Gazette. It described the Redpath Mansion case. I likened the decaying building with the final stages of my father’s life. The Redpath Mansion gained even greater significance for me when I went in person to the Golden Square Mile - in the city centre – and stood before it along Du Musée Street. I experienced it as a powerful metaphor for the transient nature of life. It also inspired thoughts related to generational ties, and how familial bonds act to influence and shape a person’s identity. The program of work I plan to undertake aims at building a scale model of the Redpath Mansion, as it appeared just before its demolition, in 2014. The physical height of this scale model is set at approximately 1 metre. I wish to place emphasis on the craft aspect, by creating a visual idiom based on details and decaying forms that allude to our connection to the past. For example, old pictures found among the rubble, scattered clothing and shoes, all of which are suggestive of a past ethos. I steer clear of political and social issues and aim to view this project with a more poetic lens, hoping to move the focus from societal problems to problems we face inside ourselves. The end result, or the finished piece would make a statement in a more introspective and emotional way, and show that the past weighs on the present, almost to the point of haunting. The viewer of the finished scale model will view it in the round, and in so doing perceive a definite narrative that addresses questions of identity, memory and loss. Ivan Markovic The Redpath Mansion, 2019 mixed media 37h x 20w x 24d in 93.98h x 50.80w x 60.96d cm IVM007 IVAN MARKOVIC was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1970. At an early age, he showed a natural propensity for drawing. At 15 years of age, he went to Paris, France to attend the Fine Arts school Creatione et Future. This experience allowed him to become a better draftsman and encouraged him to take his first steps in the art of oil painting. In 1994, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Concordia University in Montreal. During his undergraduate degree he developed an interest for Art History and life drawing. After graduation, Ivan Markovic moved to Madrid, Spain to work at the Prado museum, where he made copies of Old Masters’ paintings, and developed an understanding for the materials and techniques of Spanish, Italian and Flemish art. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Bretton Hall College, University of Leeds, in the U.K. in 1997. His graduate work focused on large-scale paintings that alluded to baroque and neoclassical painting. In parallel, he pursued his other passion, teaching, by instructing a figure drawing course. Upon completing his MFA, he returned to Madrid to work as a practicing artist and art teacher for 13 years. During this time, he experimented with a diverse range of media. Of these, he was most captivated by sculpture. In 2010, he came back to his native Montreal, thus completing a formative cycle that has lasted 25 years. Currently, Ivan Markovic lives and works between Montreal, Chicago, and Madrid. He creates three-dimensional renditions of people facing situations of adversity, especially those that live on the fringe of society. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions in Canada, the United States and Europe, and is also on permanent display in privately owned collections of art. Ivan Markovic b. 1970, Montreal, Quebec Education 1997 Master of Fine Arts, Bretton Hall College, University of Leeds, England. 1994 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. 1986 Studies at the Fine Arts School, Création et Future, Paris, France. Selected Exhibitions 2020 Double Feature: Art Shay and Ivan Markovic, 2019, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2019 SOFA Chicago 2019, Navy Pier, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2018 SOFA Chicago 2018, Navy Pier, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL Art Market Hamptons, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Bridgehampton, NY Art On Paper, Gallery Victor Armendariz, New York, NY 2017 Art Toronto, Galerie D’Este, Toronto, Canada. SOFA Chicago, Navy Pier, Option Art, Chicago, IL Papier/10th Edition, Contemporary Art Fair of Works on Paper, Galerie D’Este, Mlt., Canada. 2016 SOFA Chicago, Navy Pier, Option Art, Chicago, U.S.A. 2016 Toronto International Art Fair, Galerie D’Este, Toronto, Canada. 2016 Beyond the Pale, Galerie D’Este, Montreal, Canada. 2014 On the Fringe, Galerie D’Este, Montreal, Canada. Love Art, Galerie D’Este, Toronto, Canada. Papier 14, Contemporary Art Fair of Works on Paper, Galerie D’Este, Montreal, Canada. 2013 Shades of Isolation, Galerie D’Este, Montreal, Canada. 2013 Toronto International Art Fair, Galerie D’Este, Toronto, Canada. Papier 13, Contemporary Art Fair of Works on Paper, Galerie D’Este, Montreal, Canada. 2012 Papier 12, Contemporary Art Fair of Works on Paper, Galerie D’Este, Montreal, Canada. 2011 Papier 11, Contemporary Art Fair of Works on Paper, Galerie D’Este, Montreal, Canada 2004 Galería Francisco Duayer, Madrid, Spain. 2004 Fundación Cultural Mapfre Vida (Premio Penagos de Dibujo), Madrid, Spain. 2003 Centro Intergrado Arganzuela (Ayuntamento de Madrid), Madrid, Spain. 2003 Galería Francisco Duayer, Madrid, Spain. 2001 Galería Francisco Duayer, Madrid, Spain. 2000 Sala Goya, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain. 1998 Instituto Cervantes, John Hancock Center...

I construct sculptures based on the architecture of bird, animal, and insect homes. Viscerally attracted by their nostalgia, ware, and uselessness, I mimic their design, form and str...

Image, Imagination, Imitation: we can think these three words come from the roots √Im, but it’s not true. It’s necessary to combine the proposition in with mi, that is, √Mei, to obta...

To Chicago-based artist Patrick Fitzgerald, his sculptures are a means of traveling through time. Working from found materials, Fitzgerald constructs miniature soap box cars and the branded attire of their imagined drivers. Futuristic forms imbued with history, each sculpture is an exercise in imagining the future through the lens of the past – or vice versa. Entitled “Draftsman," this helmet & jacket set is an homage to the Eugene Dietzgen Drafting Company, formed in Chicago in the late 19th century. The company manufactured engineering supplies such as graph paper and slide rules and upheld abnormally progressive labor policies for the time period. One of the two original manufacturing plants still remains, located in the Lincoln Park...

Image, Imagination, Imitation: we can think these three words come from the roots √Im, but it’s not true. It’s necessary to combine the proposition in with mi, that is, √Mei, to obta...

Jean Lowe (American, b. 1960) Book-form sculpture, 2004 "Please Don't Eat Daisy", Enamel painted papier-mache Hand signed and dated verso Dimensions 10.5"h x 12.75"w x 4"d This title is well suited for vegetarians, vegans and plant based diets! Jean Lowe is a California-based painter and sculptor. She creates installations and sculptural works of enamel-painted papier-mâché. Lowe earned a B.A. from UC Berkeley in 1983. She earned her MFA from UC San Diego in 1988. She was a lecturer at UC San Diego from 1992 to 2008. Lowe's installations are handmade, labor intensive and visually playful installations, with papier-mâché furnishings and objects juxtaposed to site specific wall painting. Lowe says of her installations, "Intellectually I am driven by an interest in challenging a status quo anthropocentric world view and formally interested in marrying that content to a 'domestic' decorative esthetic." Many of Lowe's installations have quoted 18th and 19th century French decoration, rife with romanticized images of animals and nature and imbued with a sense of class and privilege. Into this fabric she substitutes or integrate corresponding contemporary attitudes--both about our treatment of the land and its other inhabitants and our attitudes regarding decoration: the wrestling match between high and low art. Wry humor. Lowe creates sculptural representations of everyday objects using papier-mâché and enamel paint. She is known for her papier-mâché books and has created a large collection of them with evocative and amusing titles. Her work Books and Ideas in an Age of Anxiety comprises a collection of them in display cases and is situated in Byers Hall at UCSF as part of the J. Michael Bishop Art Collection at Mission Bay. Among the book titles are: Accelerated Zen Buddhism: How to Win at the Hereafter. Anxiety: The Unexploited Weight Loss Tool. Artistic Mammography. The Eco-Tourist's Guide to Las Vegas. A Guide to Box Wines. Hot Buttered Cop Porn. How to Dominate Women. Militant Feminist Veganism for All. The Triumph of Minimalism and other such titles. Exhibitions Lowe has exhibited in both New York and Los Angeles. She participated in the 1994 exhibition Bad Girls West. Curated by Marcia Tucker, Bad Girls was a humorous and transgressive look at gender and feminist issues. It featured work from artist across many media, including photo, painting, sculpture, performance, film, comics, advertisements, writings and more. Janine Antoni, Andrea Bowers, Nancy Dwyer, The Guerrilla Girls...

Image, Imagination, Imitation: we can think these three words come from the roots √Im, but it’s not true. It’s necessary to combine the proposition in with mi, that is, √Mei, to obtain this kind of words. √Mei recalls something that catch the attention, that is intermittent and that can change. For the three following artworks we decided to decline the root starting from the concepts of light and sound, using a set of different languages, such as English, Russian, Sanskrit, Latin, Avestan, Greek and Persian, and to create shapes...

Nails and thread on wood in plexi-glass. One-of-a-kind original artwork. Nemo Jantzen, born 1970 in The Haque, studied art, design and photography at the RTO Art Academy in Rotterda...

Nails and thread on wood in plexi-glass. One-of-a-kind original artwork. Born and raised in The Haque (1970) where he studied art, design and photography at the RTO in Rotterdam, he...

“Salon (13)“ is a collection of 13 small-scale works by artist Heather Nicol. The installation of 13 assemblages is variable. The artist will personally consult with the buyer and can be on site for the installation. The 13 mixed media pieces include delicate lighting elements that shift and change via arduino electronic devices, or utilize picture lights throwing a soft roll of light across the artwork. These works are linked through their wiring, which is enveloped in a white umbilical cord-like fabric casing, creating an organic, unifying code of display. Heather Nicol is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes immersive sound installation, small-scale discrete object making, and independent curating. Her large site-specific interventions explore the architectural, sonic, historic and operational conditions across a wide range of locations. These include concourse atriums, rail terminus, lobbies, a theatre, a public school building, a theme park...

“Specimen“ is a mixed media piece by artist Heather Nicol, and measures 16x13x3“. Part of a body of work known as Salon, this particular assemblage is comprised of frame, faux fur, p...

To Chicago-based artist Patrick Fitzgerald, his sculptures are a means of traveling through time. Working from found materials, Fitzgerald constructs miniature soap box cars...