ESSE – The Concordian

ESSE’s 14th annual benefit auction featured works from these ten Concordia alumni.

Bilingual contemporary art magazine ESSE’s 14th annual benefit auction, Vendu-Sold, was recently on view at Projet Casa from Nov. 9 through Nov. 19. The opening event was attended by ESSE’s director, Concordia alumnus Sylvette Babin, along with many other ESSE administrators and several of the artists. Here is a list of all the works produced by Concordia alumni that were included in the auction—be sure to check them out and support their work!

ESSE’s director, Concordia alumnus Sylvette Babin, speaking at Projet Casa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Having earned her BFA in photography at Concordia, Clara Lacasse balances the industrial with the ethereal in her bright and airy work, Trame, 2020.

Clara Lacasse’s piece Trame, 2020 at Projet Casa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Trevor Baird, who earned his BFA in ceramics at Concordia, is showing his work The Gates of Ishtar, 2021. This curious work blends the new and the old, incorporating graphic design elements into a ceramic facade.

Lorna Bauer is currently Concordia’s studio arts program’s artist in residence. Her hand-blown glass work Sítio Bottle (Millefiori) #2, 2021, is one of a series of over fifty individual pieces that she began in 2018.

Ari Bayuaji studied fine arts at Concordia after moving to Canada from Indonesia in 2005. His woven plastic work The Rock Islands, 2022, speaks to the relationship between community and the environment.

Concordia’s MFA graduate program director in studio arts Kelly Jazvac’s work Time Scale (Granite #1), 2022, makes use of manufactured materials in order to comment on the longevity of humanity’s environmental footprint.

Jeanette Johns holds an MFA in print media from Concordia. Her work Plain Hunt on Four: 1234, 2023, combines the hand-made with the digital to create vibrating imagery that challenges our perception of space.

Élise Lafontaine earned her BFA from Concordia in 2015 before going on to complete her master’s at UQÁM. Her synesthetic work Rib of Sound, 2022, seeks to mystically translate sound itself into a visible gesture.

Jean-Michel Leclerc holds an MFA in fine arts from Concordia. His untitled work is part of a series that examines the crisis of the 1930s—rearticulating found imagery through analog photographic processes and digital fragmentation.

Staff writer Shaghayegh Naderolasli observing Jean-Michel Leclerc’s work at Projet Casa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Former Concordia professor François Morelli’s rosy and surreal work Les aurevoirs, 2022, offers an illustrative and dynamic scene of sensual figures entangled in space.

Bea Parsons is a full-time professor at Concordia who previously studied fine arts at the university. Her monotype print Sun Dog, 2023, has a soothing, painterly quality that demonstrates how the possibilities of printmaking techniques can illustrate incredible natural phenomenons.

Alexandre Pépin earned his BFA in studio arts from Concordia in 2018 before recently receiving his MFA from the University of Texas in Austin. In Fish, 2021, employs a textured blend of painting and drawing techniques with a pastel colour palette to render the image of a fish out of water.

Multidisciplinary artist Fatine-Violette Sabiri holds a BFA in studio arts from Concordia. Her work Majdouline, 2019, draws its visual language from her Moroccan heritage.

Eve Tagny earned a BFA in film production from Concordia in 2011. Her xerox impression Poppies field print, 2022, is a dark and mysterious image of a poppy field that captures a moment which speaks to humanity’s desire to capture nature.

Lan “Florence” Yee’s bright and self-aware oil painting Cantonese Still Life, 2018, is a commentary on the dominance of European traditions within the art historical canon as defined by “Western” academia. Yee earned her BFA from Concordia and her MFA from OCAD University.

Visit ESSE’s website here to see all of these artworks and more!

ESSE’s 2023 Vendu/Sold catalogue launches in partnership with Aēsop

The 14^th annual edition of ESSE’s Vendu/Sold catalogue was launched in anticipation of their 2023 benefit auction and exhibition.

The warm and invitingly soothing atmosphere of the fragrant Aēsop boutique in Montréal’s Mile End was the perfect backdrop for this year’s launch of ESSE’s annual benefit auction catalogue. Founded in 1989, Éditions ESSE’s mission has been to give a bilingual platform to contemporary art from both Canadian and international artists working in all mediums. They are especially interested in the way art intertwines with its socio-cultural context. ESSE publishes three issues per year—each issue focused on a new and relevant theme that is explored by a panoply of artists and writers from all backgrounds.

ESSE’s team warmly welcomed the public and introduced the catalogue titled “Vendu/Sold.” The hosts distributed food, drinks, party-favours with samples of Aēsop’s skincare products and copies of the catalogue to the attendees. A selection of the latest issues of Éditions ESSE’s Magazine, ESSE arts + opinions, including their most recent release, “Eau,” were available for purchase.

Copies of ESSE’s recent publications for sale at the Vendu/Sold launch event. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Artist and Concordia MFA alumnus Jeanette Johns’ Plain Hunt on Four: 1234 was on display near the entrance of the space. The piece depicts several rows of shapes and motifs that are reminiscent of weaving while also optically challenging depth and space. John’s fascinating piece is one of 40 works made by 42 artists that will be auctioned off next month at Project Casa, an art gallery dedicated to underrepresented and local contemporary artists.

Jeannette Johns’ Plain Hunt on Four: 1234 (2023) exhibited at the “Vendu/Sold” catalogue launch. Photo by Dolores Gosselin.

This year’s auction includes works from artists of different backgrounds, which are reflected in their art. Among them are Lan “Florence” Yee’s oil painting Cantonese Still Life (2018) and Dominique Sirois’s La Femme de Nimes 1 (2021). Yee’s painting reappropriates a Eurocentric theme, the still life, to depict several Cantonese snacks from the artist’s childhood, bringing comfort and modesty to an iconography usually known to represent western colonial riches. Sirois’s piece is a sandstone sculpture using curves and relief to represent a pair of jeans, commenting on the history of the clothing material, both symbolic of the industrial era and the sexual liberation.

Each year, ESSE elects a selection committee consisting of artists and scholars to participate in the selection process for the benefit auction. This committee reaches out to artists and invites them to have their work featured. Artists that provide their work to ESSE receive a partial sum of their work’s final auction price. The remainder of the auction’s funds are used to support Éditions ESSE’s various publications. The 2023 “Vendu/Sold” selection will be exhibited at Project Casa from Nov. 9 to 19, with free admission.

Éditions ESSE also holds an annual competition for undergraduate and graduate university students in Canada. This year’s deadline will be May 10, 2024. Students may send a short essay on an art-related theme or event relevant to ESSE’s work for a chance to be published in the fall edition of the magazine. This is an opportunity for aspiring writers to not only be published, but also work with a professional and friendly team either as a first or new experience. Learn more at ESSE’s website here.

ESSE’s 14th annual benefit auction featured works from these ten Concordia alumni.

The 14th annual edition of ESSE’s Vendu/Sold catalogue was launched in anticipation of their 2023 benefit auction and exhibition.

The 14^th annual edition of ESSE’s Vendu/Sold catalogue was launched in anticipation of their 2023 benefit auction and exhibition.