Recently I was watching a preview copy of the new TV show Les Contemporains wherein the “mentor” of the week – mainstream media and collectors’ favourite – Marc Seguin declared that the Quebec art milieu has an inferiority complex when it comes to painting. My mind filtered through the refreshingly multidisciplinary beast that is the Montreal contemporary art community and quickly came up with a slew of recognized and rising painters based in Montreal: from Seguin’s fellow “mentor” on the show Cynthia Girard to past RBC Canadian Painting Competition winner Colleen Heslin and this year’s finalist Nicolas Lachance, not to mention all those in Galerie de l’UQAM’s Painting project from 2013. Another name that could be added to that long list of painters is the artist Jean-Benoit Pouliot, who is currently showing at Galerie Hugues Charbonneau. 
Jean-Benoît Pouliot, Sans titre, 2013-2014, acrylic on canvas
The exhibition title, Counterpoint, references a “compositional technique based on the layering of several independent melodies.” The ten paintings on view are singular – not a series – but for the artist they remain closely connected. They were made simultaneously and explore the process and internal dialogue of his studio practice. Following this methodology, many canvases consist of built-up, often semi-translucent, layers punctuated by hard-edged shapes and lines. The more successful works are executed with the most simplicity. One standout painting is comprised of misty grey layers and a fading lattice grid sprinkled with small vertical black and white lines (reminiscent of Magritte’s falling faceless men in bowler hats). In another painting, hazy larger versions of these black and white lines are tumbling through space, while a crisp black dot in the centre of the painting casually focuses the viewer’s eye. The visual tension in these individual larger works is delicately heightened. In contrast, four small paintings shown together in a row seem overly finicky. That said, this is Pouliot’s second show at Galerie Hugues Charbonneau and he is proving himself to be consistently diverse in his exploration of abstraction.
Galerie Hugues Charbonneau: http://huguescharbonneau.com/en/
Jean-Benoit Pouliot: Counterpoints continues until November 8.
Susannah Wesley is an artist and curator living in Montreal. She has been a member of the collaborative duo Leisure since 2004 and from 1997-2000 was part of the notorious British art collective the Leeds13. Formerly Director at Battat Contemporary in Montreal, she holds an MFA from the Glasgow School of Art and an MA in Art History from Concordia University. She is Akimblog's Montreal correspondent and can be followed @susannahwesley1 on Twitter.
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Jean-Benoit Pouliot at Galerie Hugues Charbonneau
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