About
Guy Bérubé’s vision for La Petite Mort is truly – and perhaps surprisingly, given the gallery’s name – a vision of social ethics. He sees the artist’s struggle with self-awareness through visual art reflected back to the viewer not as passive recipient but as active participant in the creative endeavour. A signature feature of LPM is the feeling of discomfort many of the artworks evoke, which, as is the goal of subversive art, reflects the viewer’s personal projections back upon himself.
This discomfort is a necessary part of Bérubé’s aesthetic and ethical sensibility. It recognizes the role of art in alienation and in critical transformation, for cultural progress is usually provoked by the ideas invoked at the boundaries of our communities. LPM artists represent subjects at the margins of contemporary Canadian urban society – the sublime as well as the homeless and the schizophrenic – no different than most mainstream art since the post-Renaissance period. Not here to shock nor to entertain, however, M. Bérubé as LPM gallery owner, director & curator, is here to provide an inclusive forum for today’s Canadian artists, including those typically sidelined by mainstream society and those simply unable to function normally within it.
LPM gives the Canadian visual arts community an edge that not only gives art a vehicle for its traditional cultural role, but is acknowledged for giving Canadian Art that edge that contributes to its recognition on the world stage.
- LPM GALLERY, 2012
La Petite Mort (a French reference to the tense throes of orgasm) is a befitting name for a gallery with an appetite for the ecstatic. Definitely sexy and committed to indulgence, La Petite Mort is an eclectic ode to diversity. Home to a wide range of contemporary artwork, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, “objets trouvés” & mixed media, the gallery’s owner, Guy Bérubé, is focused on examining the synergy between artistic expression and crafty design, guided by the principle that the harmony of the two result in the highest form of creation. Weekly events at the gallery, such as the ‘One Night Stand’ art-happening every Friday, keep the space consistently vibrant, while stunning exhibits showcase a colorful mix of local, regional & international contemporary talent that will appeal to creative collectors.
The 1500 square-foot, two-level gallery can be rented for art shows & private functions. Events such as book launches, workshops, poetry readings, wine tasting, film location, fashion shoot, and press conferences can be organized for daytime or evening bookings. Rates vary according to needs.
- Andrew Ritchie, PRESTON Magazine
As contemporary art and industrial design have come to occupy an increasingly larger space in the consciousness of today’s consumers, the line between “design” and “art” continues to blur, even at times to disappear. Consequently, La Petite Mort has created a new space dedicated to exploring this shifting, evolving dialogue. The new gallery will present work which bridges these two disciplines, fusing craft and production, art and design, outsider and mainstream, designer and producer. This is an approach which we’ve followed from the early days of being artists and designers, and we are now positioned to pursue it in a much more focused way.
- Tony Martins, GUERILLA Magazine
Lens is the photojournalism blog of The New York Times, presenting the finest and most interesting visual and multimedia reporting — photographs, videos and slide shows. A showcase for Times photographers, it also seeks to highlight the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies; in print, in books, in galleries, in museums and on the Web.
“When Tony Fouhse first exhibited his stylized photographs of crack addicts made on a street corner in Ottawa, Canada, he was unsure what the reaction of the opening-night audience would be. But he knew that some of those in attendance would approve: the subjects themselves.
Mr. Fouhse’s photographs put a twist in the ongoing argument about making art out of suffering and making commodities from pictures of misfortune. When his photographs are on view at La Petite Mort, you can see the art inside and the reality outside”.
– New York Times, July 2009
