Annette Messager

Annette Messager is a prominent French contemporary artist who, since 1970, has been producing art that examines that country's culture. Like many artists who emerged in the 1970s, Messager uses a wide variety of media—drawing, collage, photomontage, sewing, found objects—which she combines to create evocative objects and installations. The elements in her work often take the form of votives, reliquaries, effigies, fetish objects, museum vitrines, and scrapbooks. They remind us not only of the sacred and institutional traditions of art, but also of the diverse and contradictory character of the individual subject within contemporary culture. Her work specifically relates to the construction of female identity within popular fiction, medical and psychological theory, pornography and advertising.

She has exhibited her work widely throughout Europe. This exhibition, curated by Annette Hurtig and jointly organized by Mercer Union and Cold City Gallery, Toronto, is the first major survey of her work in North America. In Vancouver, this exhibition is co-presented by the Contemporary Art Gallery and Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver and is installed at both locations. We gratefully acknowledge funding assistance from the District of West Vancouver.

Curated by Annette Hurtig Co-presented by Presentation House Gallery