November 24, 2022 to February 19, 2023
La Guilde is pleased to present, in partnership with the Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec and the Ville de Montréal, the exhibition of the nine finalists of the Prix François-Houdé 2022 and the ceramic artist Paul Guidera, last year’s recipient and award winner.
Cybèle Beaudoin Pilon (ceramics)
Brigitte Dahan (ceramics)
David Frigon-Lavoie (glass)
Julie Lacroix (textile)
Charlie Larouche Potvin (glass)
Lucie Leroux (textile)
Magali Robidaire (textiles)
Jérémie St-Onge (verre)
Sophie Gailliot et Richard Pontais (wood & leather)
The recipient of the Prix François-Houdé 2021 will be named on Thursday, November 24, during the award ceremony, which will be taking place at La Guilde. This prize, awarded by the Ville de Montréal, is accompanied by a monetary award. It is awarded to professional artists in the early stages of their careers. It promotes the excellence of new creation in Montréal Fine Crafts and encourages the promotion of young artists' work. The Prix François-Houdé recognizes the remarkable craftsmanship of their creations and their original contributions to the practice of a craft related to the transformation of wood, leather, textiles, metals, glass, ceramics, paper, or any other material. It also acknowledges their mastery of exploratory techniques associated with their specific discipline.
Paul Guidera, Prix François-Houdé 2021 recipient
Every year, in parallel with the finalists' works, La Guilde holds a solo exhibition of the last year's recipient. The exhibition Monstres : Douces aspérités presents a series of ceramic pastel-coloured monsters with softened forms. These monsters—bearers of narratives and imagination—inspire shared feelings somewhere between contempt and empathy. Their hybrid and unconventional identities stir fear of the unknown. Yet it is precisely their overlapping and imperfect characters that give them secretive and unsuspected powers.
Here, the creatures carry within them remnants of their means of defence: the thorns transformed into soft growths are a sign of definite resilience. Developed playfully and with a desire for hybridization, every piece in the exhibition draws as much from figurative elements as from utilitarian ones. The elements borrowed from the realm of the monstrous—legs, teeth, and bumps—blur the functional character and seek to bring to life what, at first glance, appears to be inert. From the moment they are made to once they leave the artist’s studio, these beings come to life as companions with whom it becomes possible to create meaningful and intimate links on a daily basis.
Photo: Exhibition views, 2022. © La Guilde
