I went up to Galerie Division’s new headquarters at l’Arsenal, 2020 William, in Griffintown, hoping for an unusual space, a rough or industrial interior design and installations from up and coming local crazies. Evidently I had mistaken the gallery’s vocation.

After having spent an afternoon at la Biennale de Montréal last week, I had grown high hopes for contemporary art exhibitions in this city. One of the uncountable floors of the old Montreal school of fine arts, had been transformed in a filthy, crooked and extremely freekish apartment whose tenant I could never have possibly pictured.

I could not help it. My appreciation of the biennale did spill over to the Division exhibitions that afternoon.

I had heard of l’Arsenal from a friend who had boasted about the marvels beneath its ceilings. It was, however, the actual ceilings, the many walls, the warehouse view form the inner windows and the small pillar solo seats that seduced me the most. Division is a phenomenal gallery that has infinite possibilities for installation artists, large-format photographers and the like.

The gallery is composed of three spaces, Majudia, Division and René Blouin, quasi-indiscernible from one another in content. Featured artist Allison Shulnick’s pieces had their intended effect. The misshapen creatures sure did provoke in me a disgusted cry, finding “valour in adversity” and waking up a gallery staff member who left her cozy hidden chair to explain to us the ‘divisions’.

Shulnick, who is known for her work on Grizzly Bear’s music video “Ready, Able”, depicts classic subject matters – noble animals, clowns à la Edward Munch – with A LOT of paint, for a result that is worth judging on your own.

One miniature piece, Shelley Brings Me Everything and More or The Extravagant demonstration by Marcel Dzama, a contemporary artist from Winnipeg who also works on album covers with musicians, is worth extracting from the immensity of the space.

The witty piece with dancers, roman emperors and open beavers (refer to Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, or the nude on the bottom right tier of this photograph above), brought back the humour and carefree attitude I look for in contemporary artists.