In Conversation: Melanie Authier & Melissa Bennett
Location: Olga Korper Gallery, 17 Morrow Avenue
Date: Saturday, March 15th
Time: 3:00-4:00 pm
Free event, all welcome
RSVP Link: https://forms.gle/1aCE89spRXyT5oVL6
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SPECIAL EVENT! On Saturday, March 15th from 3-4 pm, Olga Korper Gallery will host the highly anticipated artist talk with Melanie Authier and special guest Melissa Bennett, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art from the Art Gallery of Hamilton. This engaging discussion will dive into the realm of inspiration and making of Autheir’s current exhibition Mercurial Season.
Melanie Authier (Canadian, b. Montreal) received a BFA from Concordia University (2002) and an MFA from University of Guelph (2006). Authier has shown in numerous public galleries including The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON and Galerie UQAM, Montreal, QC. A major touring solo exhibition Contrarieties & Counterpoints curated by Robert Enright (2016-2018) travelled to seven venues across Canada. Recent group shows include Northern Exposure at Praz-Delavallade Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2024), Friendship’s Death at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL (2023), This Sacred Vessel Pt.1 at Arsenal Contemporary, New York, NY (2020) and The Tremendous Elusive: Emily Carr and the Canadian Imaginary, The Canada Gallery, Canada House, London, UK (2016). Her work is in numerous collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Canada House, London (UK) and the ARBZ-Visual Art Collection-Global Affairs Canada in Madrid and Berlin. In 2023 Authier was one of ten Canadians to participate in the Napoule Artist Residency in the South of France. Authier currently lives and works in the Montreal, Quebec. She is represented by Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto.
Melissa Bennett is Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in Ontario. She received an MA in Art History and Graduate Diploma in Curatorial Studies at York University and a BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. She has taught contemporary Canadian art history at the Ontario College of Art and Design, in addition to giving regular public lectures and university guest lectures on various topics of contemporary art and artists. Her current projects, in addition to the internationally-touring retrospective Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch, include solo exhibitions of the works of Greg Staats, and a retrospective-in-planning for Camille Turner. She has written or edited over 15 art exhibition catalogues, and has been recognized for her exhibition work in the annual awards of Galeries Ontario/Ontario Galleries (GOG), most recently with the Exhibition of the Year, Art Publication and Major Curatorial Writing, 2024, for Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch.