Author Description

Ayot's work spanned photography, silkscreen printing, installations and videos. He was influential not only as as an artist, but as an educator, and as founder of Montreal's first collective studio which subsequently became known as Graff, a centre for research, production and dissemination of contemporary art. Published to accompany a multivenue event, this publication serves as both monograph and exhibition catalogue. Original essays by art critics and curators provide a wide range of approaches that befit such a multi-faceted figure. Nicolas Mavrikakis focuses on Ayot's place at the heart of the social, cultural and political issues of his times, while Eve-Lyne Beaudry contextualizes his career in the major artistic movements in Europe (New Realism, Narrative Figuration) and America (Neodadaism, Pop Art) and Gilles Daigneault proposes a timeline in four parts, showing the multidisciplinary and unclassifiable nature of Ayot's legacy. Exhibition: Galerie Graff, Montréal, Canada (15.10.16 - 26.11.2016).