Local artists use flair and imagination for charity!

Vernissage: Thursday, 19 November 2009, 5 pm - 8 pm.

At Galerie CO we're kicking off the festive season in style with Christmas Tree: Extreme Makeover -- a holiday show and silent auction. Discover what happens when Monteral artists allow their imaginations free reign on a "canvas" of a recycled, cardboard Christmas tree from Milan's acclaimed A4Adesign. Galerie CO invited 11 artists working in several different media, and gave them carte blanche, asking only that they interpret the iconic tree from a fresh perspective.

Features of our holiday event:

• Vernissage. Please join us for some holiday cheer and meet the artists.
• Silent Auction. 19 November - 10 December. You could take home your very own, one-of-a-kind tree by bidding in the silent auction, beginning on November 19 and ending on December 10, featuring the decorated trees. We are proud to announce that the proceeds from the silent acution will be divided between the artists who created the trees and local missions working with underpriviledged Montrealers.
• Food and clothing drive. 19 November - 10 December. CO will be thrilled to receive contributions of warm clothing and canned goods, which will help make the season a little brighter for those who use the foodbanks in our neighbourhood.

Featured participants:

Ari Bayuaji. Part civil engineer, part visual artist and craftsman, Ari Bayuaji is an alumnus of Concordia University and the National Institute of Technology, Malang, Indonesia. He opened Osik Design in 2005 in Montreal. Combining his talents and his Indonesian influence, Bayuaji envisioned the space as both a studio and gallery displaying his woodwork and colourful designs.

Michael Bishop. Michael Bishop is a recent graduate from the Design program at Concordia University in Montreal, and is currently pursuing experimental work in object design. He also has a degree in mechanical engineering, which complements his design training, and his extensive experience working in the environmental field informs his design thinking.

Dagny Bock. Born in Montreal, Dagny Bock studied fine arts at Middlebury College in
Vermont and the Universita di Firenze, in Italy. She also trained for five years in Italy in design and restoration. She has lived throughout the United States and has travelled extensively through Europe, Asia and Mexico. Her work is held in private collections in Canada, the United States, and Italy.

Guillaume Brisson-Darveau. Trained in cinema and new media in Quebec City and Montreal, Guillame Brisson-Darveau is the creator of award-winning web projects and experimental films. in his current project, www.VIHsion.com, he works with a collective of young artists and filmmakers using video to address issues of HIV/AIDS. Their inagural event takes place at the end of November 2009.

Harlan Johnson. Originally from Nova Scotia, Harlan Johnson now lives and works in Montreal. Madrid, New York and Louisiana have all been significant in his life and work. In his paintings, culture and nature hold together in a tenuous balance and abstraction and figuartion, ideas and materials, overlap, accumulate and intermingle. Johnson has exhibited extensively. Most recently he had solo shows at Montreal's McLure Gallery and the Lafayette Gallery in Lafayette, Lousiana.

David Lafrance. A native of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, David Lafrance now lives and works in Montreal. He is a graduate of Concordia University, where he studied painting and drawing. Also a talented musician, Lafrance's sound and visual art are inspired by folkloric traditions of Quebec, which he uses to create works both euphoric and critical. His work can be seen at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and at the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec.

Amelia Robinson. A native of Montreal, Amelia Robinson has a BFA in film from Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (NSCAD). She has worked in several media. Robinson also has a BA in translation, and works as a translator in Montreal while pursuing her goal of becoming an illustrator of beautiful children's books.

Michael Slack. Michael Slack is an artist who has lived and worked in Montreal since 1998. Trained as a set and costume designer for the stage, he has worked in various theatres and operas across the country. Over the past several years, in an attempt to define his professional career, he has concluded that his happiness and best work comes from simply working with his hands.

Karine St-Arnaud. For Karine St-Arnaud, artistic creation is an irresistable challenge. After completing an acting degree, she co-founded "Théâtre de la Névrose!". That experience provided her a chance to act, but also to write and to participate in diffent aspects of theatre production. Mostly it gave her the opportunity to refine her artistic vision and her taste for creativity in different fields. In 2008 she participated in the staging of "Max et les ogres" with the group "pentaèdre", her first experience with puppets, wich she made out of recycled materiels and manipulated on stage. She went on to found "Théâtre sous la main", so she can deepen her knowledge of puppetry and pursue her fascination with the different modes of artistic creation.

Ross Thompson. Montreal-based designer Ross Thompson is a textile artist who has created designs for some of North America's larges retailers. Seeking to pursue an alternative path from the world of mass-produced goods, Thompson began creating his own line of hand-screened cushions in 2007. His process combines the rich, tactile qualities of fine-art printmaking techniques, with innovative conceptual designs, based on images from his travels.

Florence Victor. Florence Victor studied Fine Arts at Concordia University in Montreal. Since graduating, Victor has exhibited her work widely in both group and solo shows. Recent solo shows of her work include "On friendship, love and sex" at Galerie St-Laurent + Hill in Ottawa, and "Vivre" at Galerie Quartier Libre in Montreal. Victor has also been involved in theatre, and studied drama in Montreal, Quebec City and New York.

Special participation by: Twelve students from an art class at the Mackay Centre School for deaf and disabled children will collectively decorate a tree.