Stare – Star d’un Soir

I make no secret of my love for graffiti & street art, and Montreal  is a fertile breeding ground for this expression of cultural vitality. Checking out the April 2013 edition of Cult MTL I see that Yves Laroche Gallery is having a show of work by one of Montreal’s best-known “public artists”, Stare.

…this month the NME crew co-founder mounts his first-ever full-fledged solo exhibition. Entitled “Star d’un Soir”, the show at Yves Laroche is timed to coincide with the launch of a small-run art book of the same name.

…Unlike many  outdoor artists who take their work indoors, Stare doesn’t just reproduce his street art aesthetic in the studio and then hang it in a gallery. “Star d’un Soir” is a meta-commentary on street art’s relationship with documenting itself, staged by reproducing several of his own since-buffed murals as paintings of Polaroid photographs.

Emily Raine “Staring Stare.” Cult MTL (April 2013)

This reminds me a bit of the work of Kevin Cyr who photographed NYC delivery vans, created tiny scale models, then created prints based on the models –  or that of Jessica Hess who does oil paintings of urban scenes full of graffiti. Stare really does kick it up a notch conceptually by reproducing his own outdoor work, though.

I’d love to show you some pictures from the exhibition but oddly Cult MTL doesn’t have an online version of the article, Stare doesn’t appear to have a website, and Yves Laroche gallery hasn’t put any tasters online – but they have put up a video teaser for the show:

Here are a few examples of Stare’s work from my Montreal street art/graffiti 2002-2012 collection:

Needless to say I’m pretty excited to go check out the show, and those of you similarly inclined should do so, too. Yves Laroche gallery is at 6355 Saint-Laurent (just a bit south of Beaubien), and the vernissage is this Wednesday from 5-9. The show runs until April 26.