Maison de la culture de Janine-Sutto
November 26, 2026 to January 17, 2027
Cultural Officer: Liz Chan
2550 Rue Ontario Est
Montréal, QC H2K 1W7
514.872.7882
mcjsutto@montreal.ca
https://montreal.ca/lieux/maison-de-la-culture-janine-sutto
Exhibitions:
The Unspeakable Compromise Studio 103
Lan “Florence” Yee, Gabriela Avila Yiptong
Commissaire/Curator: eunice bélidor
Rends-moi mes yeux
Sarah Cloutier
Lan "Florence" Yee: things change quickly, 2026 huile sur toile / oil on canvas 122 x 91.44 cm
Gabriela Avila Yiptong: Out of Order, 2023 huile sur coton / oil on cotton 40 x 30 cm
Sarah Cloutier: Compressed (detail), 2026 huile et acrylique sur toile / oil and acrylic on canvas 243.8 x 121.9 cm
Studio 103 at the Maison de la Culture Janine-Sutto returns to a curatorial collaboration started in 2018 between Lan “Florence” Yee, Gabriela Avila Yiptong, and myself. I had invited them to show their paintings at articule, an artist-run centre dedicated to social engagement, experimentation, and interdisciplinarity. Historically, artist-run centres in Quebec mostly present art practices that are outside the traditional exhibition circuit and that have a precarious dissemination because it doesn’t systematically lead to the work becoming part of museum collections or being sold in commercial galleries. The focus is often on temporary, performative, and spontaneous works, new media, and technological approaches. What place does painting have in this context? How is contemporary painting created by women, racialized, or non-binary people perceived? This time, Yee and Yiptong explore the theme by considering the studio both as a site of artistic possibilities and as a space shaped by material,
economic, and social constraints. The artists interpret the “compromise” of choosing a studio and a creative life through their respective practices and come together to create collaborative works. Yiptong’s paintings explore the repetitive rhythms of the 9-to-5 work cycle, as well as the experience of reconciling employment with an art practice. Yee’s paintings depict the abilities to improvise and adapt that are necessary to do the work (in the studio, community organizations, family businesses, and so on). Lastly, the screenprints created through a collaborative research project that the artists undertook in Canada and abroad examine the sacrifices made to maintain an art practice, what artists gain, and what is lost when a practice can no longer be pursued. Studio 103 serves as a kind of synthesis or, as Buren writes, a private place where only the artist’s experience is law.
essay excerpt by eunice bélidor