Montreal

The actor’s face, projected on all three screens, react to which one you pay most attention to, testing his limits and your own.

Two things about Montreal artist Dave Arnold: A) He is hilarious, and B) He doesn’t like to be pigeonholed. In an attempt to avoid this, he’s currently working under the alias Mr. Sign, and is bringing a new face to many storefronts in an old way: by hand-painting signs for businesses eager to recreate that old nostalgic charm. He also has a collection of paintings titled “Teenage Nudes,” consisting of Betty and Veronica from Archie comics posing in the nude. “It seemed like a decent idea,” he says, laughing.One commonality within all of Dave’s work is his rampant penchant for nostalgia.

Have you ever been to Quebec? No, Quebec. No not Montreal, Quebec. La Belle Province; home of poutine, Guy Lafleur’s disco album, and Mitsou. Well I have and God bless those Libertarian princes and princesses. They take the government’s money and give them none. Heck, I would vote for the Bloc if only they had representatives here in British Columbia. They are the special people of this country and they deserve every grant they get. So there’s really no turning down a chance to cover a festival in remote Rouyn-Noranda when it’s offered to you.

Montreal-based painter Jonathan Bergeron has spent many years working under the celebrated moniker of Johnny Crap, but it’s a name he is no longer content with. As he moves further and further away from the graffiti and poster art world to focus more specifically on painting for gallery shows and such, the stigma attached to Johnny Crap does not bode well with potential buyers and gallerists alike.

Strewn around the backyard of an old bank in Montreal, propped up against trees, are used mattresses decorated with serene, sleeping, naked bodies. And they are captivating and catching the eyes of galleries, art bloggers and casual passersby across the country. The man behind these works is Winnipeg native Brian Hunter, who, at 24, fled the country to explore Asia after his efforts at making a full-time living off of his art seemed fruitless, and a need to see the world took hold.