Plusiers d'entres vous visitez l'une ou l'autre des soirées de poésie montréalaises, plusieurs offrent une vitrine vers la poésie récitative, le SLAM ou même la musique. D'autres vous offre également des regards sur la poésie en images, soit par des expositions d'oeuvres d'arts sur place ou par le travail de VJ (vidéo, projections).

Ce mercredi, il m'a fait grand plaisir de partager avec vous le talent de deux artistes que j'affectionne beaucoup. Celui d'Alexandra Delgado, poète, chanteuse, compositeure et interprète (bientôt maman également), et celui moins connu encore de Iran Plata, un peintre d'origine cubaine récemment arrivé à Montréal.

Je vous invite FORTEMENT à visiter les sites Web de chacun et à lire la critique en anglais qu'un autre ami a faite (sans savoir que nous nous connaissons tous) à propos du travail d'Iran.

Alexandra Delgado www.alexandradelgado.com
Iran Plata http://es.geocities.com/iranplata/

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I strongly encourage you to visit these two amazing artists which I was so honored to have amongst us last Wednesday. Poetry in music and in images...

Alexandra Delgado www.alexandradelgado.com
Iran Plata http://es.geocities.com/iranplata/

Here is a critique that our other friend, Brian Campbell did of Iran's work (not knowing we all knew one another!)

(transcript from Brian's blog)http://briancampbell.blogspot.com
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Iran Plata

A week or two ago a friend and I wandered past a collective gallery on Parc Ave. -- Ame Arte, it is called -- that generally displays local artists of varying quality -- and were surprised to find a show there worthy of a major museum. It turned out to be paintings of one Iran Plata, a Cuban who just immigrated recently to Montreal... and who happened to be there at the gallery at the time. A former art professor in Havana, I don't know how he got out -- when I vacationed in Cuba almost 20 years ago, people couldn't, and have things changed that much? -- but he seems to be here to stay. His canvases, mostly quite large, are at once grotesque, disturbing, playful and warm. It's easy to pick out influences -- Aztec and Inca art, Diego Rivera murals, Escher and de Chirocco perspectives, Pop Art psychedelics, Salvador Dali dreamscapes (he has a number of figures with ants crawling over them, clearly a salute to Dali). But he has blended these into his own bold style, and the painterly skill is extraordinary. He tells me that his palette, typically a riot of tropical colours, has already become toned down somewhat by the Canadian winter. I wondered if the austere canvas below was an expression of that. He answered, no, this one was also painted in Cuba, but inspired by a younger friend who had confessed to him that he had spent most of his adolescence alone in his room. Anyway, you can see more of his work -- including some striking quasi-landscapes -- on his web site. -posted by Brian Campbell