Produced by the Centre d'exposition de Val-d'Or, Sous l'œil de la photographe. Portraits de femmes 1898-2003 brings together portraits by six Quebec women photographers from two different eras. Three of these women – Sally Eliza Wood, Marie-Alice Dumont, Anne Katherine Kew – were pioneers in the first half of the 20^th century, whereas the others – Doreen Lindsay, Marisa Portolese, Mackenzie Stroh – are contemporary artists. Curator Lucie Bureau's primary aim with this exhibition is to "look at the ways in which women photographers appropriated the picture-making process – especially in pictures of women – throughout the 20^th century."

The exhibition Sous l'œil de la photographe. Portraits de femmes 1898-2003 is a production of Centre d'exposition de Val-d'Or.

Opening on September 10, 2005 at 3 pm.
Presentation by Lucie Bureau on September 21, at 7 pm.

Manon De Pauw is a young Montreal artist who stands out for a visual art and media practice that involves dance and writing, among other things. Her minimalist works infused with noble simplicity feature the body in a constantly renewed relationship with time. Her body becomes an instrument, a communication tool or a playing space, lending itself to strange movements, evolving in fast forward, real time or slow motion. More poetic than critical, De Pauw's work prompts reflection on the contemporary individual's relationship to work, the transmission of information and productivity. The exhibition includes a new creation and recent pieces.

For thirty or so years, Montreal artist Denis Rousseau has been producing hybrid kinetic sculptures, along with photographs and videos. Dominated by a quest for identity, his work deals with life, death, religion, sexuality, the power of images, and speaking out. For him, these are matters of commitment, and this aspect of his work will be pointed up in the exhibition, principally through the notion of language. Playfulness, sound, narrative structure, kinetics, seductiveness and perceptions of the body are some of the means he uses to recount, communicate and make contact with others. This retrospective is produced by the Musée régional de Rimouski and curated by Mona Hakim, who has selected close to a dozen works made since 1989.

Montreal photographer Sylvie Readman, now in mid-career, probes the representation of landscape as a figurative element. For some years she has focused on the physical aspects of the photographic language and its particular expressive properties. Her latest productions go further in schematizing the landscape. Little mounds of earth and bales of hay captured in a way that creates almost abstract images, semi-urban spaces (silos, fields, barns, etc.) that seem to vibrate before our eyes. The exhibition offers an insightful look at Readman's work of the past decade and highlights the points of continuity in her approach. Coproduced with Plein sud, centre d'exposition en art actuel à Longueuil, it is a two-part event, showing at EXPRESSION on the dates indicated above, and at Plein sud from March 4 to April 18, 2006.

Claude Millette, who was born in Saint-Hyacinthe and lives in the region, make sculptural, abstract works, many of which can be seen on public sites around Quebec. Made for the most part of steel or stainless steel, they are notable for imposing size, raw finish, massive structure, and dynamic form achieved by the fusion of straight lines and curves. Millette subjects the metal to soldering, cutting, folding and even dynamiting, powerfully incarnating the sensible universe. This retrospective curated by Mélanie Boucher covers three decades of the artist's career, including landmark works and visual documents and prominently featuring an original piece created expressly for the occasion.