Sophie Jodoin

Win, lose or draw

Written by Robyn Fadden
Published in The Hour, March 19, 2009

Seventy-five black-framed drawings of faces half-hidden, half-merged with gas masks and helmets line a three-walled space at the sunlit Battat Contemporary gallery. Patterns emerge among them, but they never lose their lonely individuality, lined up as they are, an emotionally overwhelming, alienated armada. Such regimen coupled with fragility is a theme Montreal artist Sophie Jodoin has explored for many years....

See complete text: http://www.hour.ca/visualarts/visualarts.aspx?iIDArticle=16892

Related Exhibition: Headgames: hoods, helmets & gasmasks
Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Sophie Jodoin - Headgames: Hoods, Helmets & Gasmasks

Written by John K. Grande
Published in Vie des arts (english edition) No 215, Summer 2009, p. 9., July 7, 2009

"As part of her ongoing War series, Jodoin's Headgames are arresting, not only for the paraphernalia of war these black conte on Mylar heads wear, but equally because they look seemingly innocent in many cases." (...) "The 75 dramatic drawings seen at Battat Contemporary have a processional beauty, in that each individual images is part of an ongoing sequence, and we read them within the continuity of the series, as an entity conceives of. Jodoin breathes life into age-old themes of war, social anomie and media's influence on our perception of truth with grace, talent and humility."

See complete text: www.viedesarts.com

Related Exhibition: Headgames: hoods, helmets & gasmasks
Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Haunted: The Uncanny in the Drawings of Sophie Jodoin

Written by James D. Campbell
Published in Etc Montreal, September 1, 2009

If drawings can be hanunted by old memories, even primordial ones, then Sophie Jodoin's installation made for a replete haunting at the inaugural exhibition of the Battat Contemporary art space. Seventy-five black-framed drawings, mostly of monstrously expressive, mostly human heads (with some notable exceptions), might have had an impact far greater as an ensemble than separate drawings if the subjects of those drawings were not such powerfully individualistic personae in their own right. (...)

Related Exhibition: Headgames: hoods, helmets & gasmasks
Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Rentrée hivernale partie 4

Written by Éloi Desjardins
Published in Un show de Mot'arts, January 26, 2011

" «Tant de morts pour si peu» de Sophie Jodoin chez Oboro. L’artiste exhibait, il y a déjà quelques mois à Clark, de grandes oeuvres sur papier. Cependant, Jodoin s’exprime mieux dans le petit format. Son dessin, sobre et spectaculaire à la fois, s’avère vraiment efficace. Une projection et une boîte lumineuse ajoutent aussi une belle diversité à l’exposition. Une des meilleures présentée au 4001 rue Berri depuis cet automne."

See complete text: http://www.unshowdemotarts.net/?p=2052

Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Sophie Jodoin’s Uncanny Valley: A Road-trip through the Allusions and Illusions of You Have to Kill a Whole to Get a Little

Written by Frozen Mammoth
Published in Inside the Frozen Mammoth, January 27, 2011

" At once fragile and strong, her work breathes in pain, exhales tenderness. Her figures, often anonymous, exude a quiet intimacy. A headless pair of twins carry with them a sense of profound self-hood. There is an urge to tenderly pet the shadow of a black, black dog. When these unique pieces come together, they give rise to a paradoxical realm that we connect with on a deep level. We, too, live in paradox, in discomfort. (Perhaps) this is why it can be difficult to confront Jodoin’s work – it takes us on a journey to the uncanny valley where it resides, and upon arriving we discover we are somewhere recognizable, somewhere we’ve been before. "

See complete text: http://www.thefrozenmammoth.com/

Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Sophie Jodoin : La part manquante

Written by Claire Moeder
Published in Rats de ville, January 28, 2011

" À l’invite du centre OBORO, Sophie Jodoin a conçu l’exposition Tant de morts pour si peu. Réalisées entre 2008 et 2010, les œuvres déclinent diverses images en suspens. Échappant sciemment à tout repère temporel ou spatial, elles produisent une mémoire impossible de la guerre et de ses souffrances. "

See complete text: http://ratsdeville.typepad.com/ratsdeville/2011/01/claire-moeder-sur-jodoin-chronique.html

Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Sophie Jodoin

Written by James D. Campbell
Published in Magenta Magazine, March 17, 2011

Sophie Jodoin is attempting something truly remarkable in her recent work: to name the darkness in our nature, going where angels fear to tread, as it were, in this pursuit, and palpably evoking the tremendum, or nameless Other, in the process. Her true subject matter is specifying this demonic alterity that threatens to swallow us whole and deprive us of our human wherewithal. She is a connoisseur of pain and we are, at first, unwilling voyeurs. But, soon enough and strangely, we never want to turn away.

See complete text: http://www.magentamagazine.com/6/exhibition-reviews/sophie-jodoin

Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Canada at the New York Fairs: Art from the Upper North Side

Written by BILL CLARKE
Published in Canadian Art, March 15, 2012

" Volta first-timers Battat Contemporary presented an elegant arrangement of new collages and drawings by Sophie Jodoin bookended by two larger works—Close Your Eyes (2012), a black glass piece with the work’s titular words sandblasted into it, and the charcoal-and-pastel drawing Untitled (feet) (2012), in which a woman’s strappy-heeled feet dangle disturbingly from the top of the picture frame."

See complete text: http://www.canadianart.ca/online/2012/03/15/nyc-fairs-bill-clarke2012/

Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Sophie Jodoin & Papier 12 @ Salut Bonjour

Written by Salut Bonjour @ TVA
Published in TVA, April 28, 2012

Entrevue avec l'artiste Sophie Jodoin @ TVA dans le cadre de la foire Papier12. --- Interview with Sophie Jodoin @ TVA during Papier12 Art fair.

See complete text: http://tva.canoe.ca/video/1559759444001

Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Drawing-collage fusions hold surprises at Vancouver Drawn

Written by Kevin Griffin
Published in Vancouver Sun, July 11, 2012

The exhibition of works by Montreal artist Sophie Jodoin are organized to tell a loose narrative meant to show the various stages in the life of a person from childhood to adulthood, according to curator Lynn Ruscheinsky. Describing Jodoin as one of the country’s most creative drawers, Ruscheinsky said the artist makes works that combine everyday objects in startling new ways that are reminiscent of dreams.

See complete text: http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Drawing+collage+fusions+hold+surprises/6918379/story.html

Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Sophie Jodoin’s drawings are charged with the spectres of trauma

Written by Robin Laurence
Published in Georgia Straight, July 3, 2012

Darkness and light, innocence and brutality, comfort and destruction: Sophie Jodoin’s drawings are filled with contrast and conflict. They are charged with metaphors of physical violence and psychological suffering, and shaped by meditations on our shared mortality.

See complete text: http://www.straight.com/article-724046/vancouver/sophie-jodoins-drawings-are-charged-spectres-trauma

Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin

Artist draws human condition in black & white

Written by Matthew Hoekstra
Published in Richmond Review, June 21, 2012

It might look like a series of simple spaces, but Sophie Jodoin has much bigger plans for Richmond Art Gallery when the Montreal artist arrives Monday. “I see them as chambers of our lives. You wander through it and each body of work makes you question how you live your own life and the kinds of struggles you might be going through,” she said.

See complete text: http://www.richmondreview.com/entertainment/159955635.html

Related Artists: Sophie Jodoin