New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal
Saturday January 18, 2014
Pages: S4 and S5
Section: S (Salon)
Byline: Mike Landry, Arts and Culture Editor
While many of his notoriety, accomplishment and age are compelled to pen memoirs, Herménégilde Chiasson is up to something else entirely – a 600 page poetry project, two new exhibitions and a major curatorial undertaking examining the development of contemporary Acadian art. Any of these alone would be a major undertaking, but for Chiasson it just makes for a January like no other. And, taken together, these projects begin to form a singular autobiography.
His new poetry series Autoportrait, published by Editions Prise de parole, has been launched earlier this month. The 12-part series was written in one year from 2002 to 2003. Each part corresponds with one of the 12 letters in his name – Herménégilde.
This month, on top of his teaching a course on Acadian art history at Université de Moncton, he is exhibiting a 45-year retrospective of his printmaking (1968-2013) at Galerie Bernard-Jean in Caraquet and unveiling new work inspired by his father at Galerie 12 in Moncton.
In a final grand achievement, Chiasson has also curated 50//50// 50, a group show of 50 works from 50 Universite de Moncton graduates to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the school’s fine arts program, which runs from January 29 to March 30 at Galerie d’art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen.
There will be an opening reception and catalogue launch on February 19 at 5:00 PM at the gallery.
© 2014 Telegraph-Journal (New Brunswick)
Reprinted by permission