By Paul Gessell

Come for the art; stay for the gossip. A vernissage at Gallery 101 is always worth the trip.

First the art, where the new exhibition at Ottawa’s artist-run centre is called Bureaucracy.

Most of the gallery’s single room is filled with Rene Price’s over-the-top, satirical paintings of bureaucrats engaged in useless work activities. Price knows personally that which he paints, having been a Parks Canada bureaucrat for 31 years in Cornwall. Retired, but never retiring, most of Price’s time is spent these days in Ottawa, with his wife, artist-curator Petra Halkes.

Another aspect of Bureaucracy at Gallery 101 was still under construction on opening night. Immony Men favours time-consuming art-labour of repetitive actions — in this case, a wall-sized mural made of thousands of yellow Post-It notes, carefully placed one at a time on the bare wall. (more…)