PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY IN MONTREAL PRESENTS “FRAGILE” AN INSTALLATION OF NEW WORKS BY ARTIST CHERYL PAGUREK
CHERYL PAGUREK
FRAGILE
MONTRÉAL
NOVEMBER 26, 2016 TO JANUARY 13, 2017
ARTIST RECEPTION:
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26
2 P.M. TO 5 P.M.
PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY in Montréal is pleased to present FRAGILE, an exhibition of new photography and video works by photo-based artist CHERYL PAGUREK. Following recent presentations in France, Colombia, and Italy, FRAGILE launches a new series of works that probe our everyday relationships with the world around us—within the context of a digitally networked, global society.
In FRAGILE, Pagurek presents the Tea Cups series of short videos and photo-based digital prints—all made by projecting contemporary global news imagery into vintage teacups. With turbulent news images and footage projected within them, the teacups become vessels containing a window onto the world. They bring worldwide events “closer to home,” both literally and figuratively, while evoking the tensions and intersections between private and public, past and present, order and chaos. Despite the scale reversal, the fine china appears barely able to contain the raw energy of the miniaturized scenes. Indeed, the careful ordering and arranging of cherished collectibles seems but a thin veneer of control in the face of a world beset by indiscriminate turmoil and crisis.
Cheryl Pagurek’s lens-based practice is characterized by the breadth of its experimentation and the pursuit of diverse approaches to photography and video. While based on keen observation of reality, her work disrupts our usual expectations of photography and video and their traditional claim to verisimilitude, instead highlighting their constructed nature. Pagurek’s work has been shown extensively across Canada and internationally including in Toronto, Kingston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toulouse, Marseille, Rio de Janeiro, Cartagena, Montréal’s Mois de la photo, and Ottawa’s Nuit Blanche. She is the recipient of a series of public art commissions and her work can be found in numerous collections including: Global Affairs Canada (Canada House, London), Canada Council Art Bank, Library of the National Gallery of Canada, Cenovus Energy, Ottawa Art Gallery, and City of Ottawa Art Collection. Articles and critical discourses about her work have been featured in Prefix Photo, Ciel Variable, BlackFlash, Vie des Arts, Canadian Art, Next Level (UK), and Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism. She is the recipient of an M.F.A. from the University of Victoria.
