Additional Images

Provenance:

Courtesy of the artists; Patel Brown, Toronto and Montréal.

The Work & Artist Bio

Animals with Sharpies (I could do it now), 2023, is an acrylic and Sharpie on birch panel painted by artists Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber who work collaboratively to produce paintings with texts that are probingly analytical and often uncannily close to our own interior thoughts. The short messages that are startling, funny, sad, loving, rude, or cheeky are inscribed by snakes, dogs, cats, geese, chickens, rabbits, — the whole of the outdoors — holding a Sharpie in beak, muzzle, snout, or between teeth. As viewer we have the privileged overview, closing in on whiskers seen from behind, noting glossy feathered heads while the creature pens the message. The spareness of the image is rendered on a solid painted ground in a clear tone, the animal scribe silhouetted but with sufficient detail to be unmistakeable, irresistible, endearing and very very smart.

Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber are founding members of The Royal Art Lodge, and have continued a collaborative practice since the collective disbanded in 2008. Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, in solo exhibitions at the Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; KRETS Gallery, Malmö, Sweden; Art Bärtschi & Cie, Geneva and recently at Patel Brown, Toronto. They have produced a number of books, the following published by Drawn and Quarterly, Montréal: Library, 2021, Flowers, 2018, Animals with Sharpies, 2013 and Constructive Abandonment, 2011. They were shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2014. Dumontier and Farber’s work is included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery and Winnipeg Art Gallery as well as Takashi Murakami, Tokyo, Japan; La Maison Rouge, Paris, France; Centro De Arte Caja de Burgos, Burgos, Spain. They are represented by Patel Brown, Toronto and Montréal; Blouin Division, Montréal and Toronto; and Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, California.

The Synonym Revealer's Life: Neil Farber Makes Connections, Border Crossings Issue 131, 2014

Animal Writes: Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber, Border Crossings Issue 127, 2013

If Fred Astaire Could Draw… The Elegant Artworks of Michael Dumontier, Border Crossings Issue 107, 2008

Patel Brown

Blouin Division

Richard Heller Gallery