Underdonk

press release

November 14-December 8, 2024

Curated by Benjamin Klein

Opening reception Thursday, November 14 from 6-8 PM 

Please Note: This show will take place at Underdonk’s new location
at 191 Henry St. in the Lower East Side 

Underdonk is overwhelmed with pride to announce Freakydeak Montreal Chique, a group show of Montreal-based, centric, or originating artists. These folks work in darkly surreal, weirdo expressive, and oddball conceptual styles, as befitting the denizens of such an ecstatic, spooky, sexy place. North America is home to two towns that are referred to as “Sin City”: Vegas, and Montréal. Both are suffused with legal gambling, wild nightlife, and outlaw adult industries, but the bleu capital of the northeast carries an old-world threat to it, just below the surface – alongside its world-famous cuisine (including the best-in-the-world bagels, NYC). Its low-rent laid-backness is balanced out by a flipside, searing emotional intensity, which isn’t even a paradox although some people might think so. Montreal is like a colder, prettier, smaller version of New York, plus a large dollop of Paris, with a light dash of “Canada” getting in there too… but not really very much “Canada”. It’s as if New York City married Paris, had a child that then was divided by three instead of two, which determined its nature and scale: voila, Montreal. It’s a romantic hub, a dreamy nightmare of a place, a fashion centre and party town, physically closer to The Big Apple than Buffalo, straight up I-87, just past the Adirondacks. NYC and Mtl should really see more of each other, if not outright go home together, winking as they are from across the mountains, and this exhibition is one great way to experience some of that, in The City That Never Sleeps. Montreal, by contrast, does sleep – during the day. This is a show of gloaming dusk to rosy dawn artworks, with plenty of darkened and fearsome witching hour in there. 

These works will never be brought all together again. Kind of too bad, too, don’t you think, given their mutual relevancy, surprises, shocks, and sweet tendency to poetically whisper, one to another. If you just want the apocalypse to lighten up and be more fun, then Freakydeak Montreal Chique is for you, if not a move to the second biggest island in the Saint Lawrence river. 

And so, here is a list. These are the names of the risqué artists that make up the brigand pirate heroes in and of this show:

Abraham Brainin
Sylvie Bouchard
Nadine Faraj
Berirouche Feddal
Eliza Griffiths
Jim Holyoak
Mathieu Lacroix
Nadine Maher
Tess Martens
Evangelos Michelis
Rebecca Munce
Bea Parsons
Eric Paulino
Matt Shane
Lorraine Simms
Yves Tessier

Each of these artists possesses a mature schtick, a sincerely dishonest magically true style of their own, that they discovered either by accident or through hard work. Or both.

Have a good look, get hypnotized, and enjoy the freak out!
Bienvenue. 

•••

Underdonk
191 Henry St.

F train to East Broadway or FMJZ to Delancey Essex
[email protected]
Hours: Open Saturdays and Sundays 1-6 PM

Image: Pink Moon Womxn With Blue Deer, Watercolour on Arches paper. 22 x 30 inches (56 x 76 cm). © Nadine Faraj 2021.