Mercedes Cueto, a local artist, will transform La Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario (GNO), 174 Elgin St., into a boudoir, a ladies private bedroom, as an exhibition of her work.
Her show is entitled la confession de mademoiselle, and runs until Feb. 27. Her opening reception was Jan. 22 at 5 p.m. at GNO.
“A boudoir is a woman's sitting room. It is where a woman can cultivate her favourite pastimes like needlepoint, for example,” Cueto said. “What I am doing is an art installation.”
She said her exhibit gives a person the feeling of walking right into an art experience.
“The installation plays around with love issues such as love lost, intimate moments, Eros and beauty - not in a sexual sense, but in a love and beauty sense,” she noted. There are red lights, a comfortable couch, drawings on large vinyl surfaces, maps and structures that work together to build her theme.
“In this project, Mercedes Cueto draws the viewer into a whirlwind of stories that are hers personally or those of others. Curiously, these stories intermingle and become fixed with other experiences from elsewhere on the planet,” Danielle Tremblay, GNO director, added.
“She swings between beauty and hideousness, love and hate, the pleasing and the disturbing. She questions the proximity of these extremes as she pierces and sews the vinyl. The work becomes flesh, sensitive and vulnerable,” said Tremblay.
“People are excited Mercedes Cueto is exhibiting at GNO. She is from Sudbury and quite active in the community.”
Cueto has just finished working as full time art director for Darlene Naponse's film, Every Emotion Costs, shot mostly at Whitefish Lake First Nation, east of the city. She was gallery coordinator at the Art Gallery of Sudbury between 2000 and 2006 and studied at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. Besides video arts she works in videography. Her videos and exhibits have been presented across Ontario.
Recently she has volunteered at GNO.
“I love volunteering here. I get excited about the arts community locally and from the outside. GNO is a centre for artists.”
For more information, visit www.gn-o.org. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.
