Sculptor and painter launch new gallery

Sculptor Edna Katz-Silver (at left) stands with painter Hervé Teboul and his wife Mona Laxer in the new Studio ARTeboul in Décarie Square. HEATHER SOLOMON PHOTO

Edna Katz-Silver and Hervé Teboul met only a few weeks ago but their respective media have made a match in Teboul’s new gallery space, Studio ARTeboul in Décarie Square, 6900 Décarie Blvd., suite 119.

“I’ve been wanting to show sculpture for a long time. When Edna came in with examples of her work, I was captivated by her creations,” says Teboul, a painter who has just put the finishing touches on what is not only an exhibition area but a new-concept art school for adults and children and a drop-in centre for anyone with the urge to take up a paint brush for a couple of hours.

Last year his teaching facilities were located at the square but hidden among the offices upstairs.

Now he is just off the indoor parking lot, a handy and spacious locale that has room for a storefront gallery and just beyond, in the same well-lit huge room, a long row of easels with rolling chairs for adults, and a large children’s table where he also teaches with his wife Mona Laxer.

With his own studio space onsite, it’s a dream come true for the Casablanca-born painter who has hopped from Queen Mary Road to Côte des Neiges Road to Laurier Street in various configurations of his gallery over his 20 years in Montreal. This is the first venue that can accommodate all facets of his talents.

In this inaugural exhibition opening Aug. 28 at 4 p.m. and on until the end of October, Teboul is revealing a new technique he developed over the last two years.

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“Some of the paintings are done in a more contemporary style that I call caséisme, using squares of paint applied with a palette knife,” he says. He is showing some of his series of oil portraits of the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson and idyllic landscapes along with abstracts.

“My landscapes were inspired by Provence in France. I arrived there from Morocco with my family at the age of 8 and stayed for 25 years, so when I started painting in 1987, it was because of the Mediterranean light,” he says.

Montreal has ignited even brighter colours in his canvases thanks to our incomparable autumns. He passes his enthusiasm on four days a week with a student show planned for next spring.

Katz-Silver’s sculptures under the umbrella title Let’s Talk About It, complement Teboul’s work in that the bronzes and aluminums reflect light and the stones are a variety of colour. They mainly take the form of abstract human groups or couples, relating to one another.

“There are so many people I want to talk to but how? I communicate through my art,” says Katz-Silver who has been exhibiting her work for more than 40 years.

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In Partners, a couple sits back to back suggesting that at times communication becomes intuitive. Ode to the Sun is a more textured, geometric piece in aluminum that she hopes one day to have commissioned as a 10-foot outdoor sculpture.

The pillar candleholders atop a glass case suggest the Judaica for which she has become well known. Her chanukiyot, Shabbat candleholders and mezuzot are fresh, abstract designs that have been embraced with enthusiasm by her many admirers. Katz-Silver’s ideas and drive keep her current.

“I met Jessica Loft who is First Nations when we were both extras on a film set. We decided to combine cultures, a Jewish mezuzah with the First Nations philosophy of life and the Earth,” she explained.

A collection of these called Sacred Promises resulted, talismans to affix to doorposts horizontally rather than diagonally, containing such native symbols as sage and lavender in the cavity.

Both Teboul and Katz-Silver know how to renew their lives and they do it with art. 


For more information, call 514-862-2070 or go to www.studioARTeboul.com.