2022 Vendu-Sold Selection Committee

“Above all, supporting the Vendu-Sold auction means contributing to the wealth of contemporary culture, encouraging unique and engaged art practices, and keeping the magazine Esse publishing for a long time to come.”

Anne Roger is an art historian with a master’s degree in philosophy and contemporary art theory from Université Paris 8. She has held numerous executive positions in public and private cultural institutions in Paris, London, Rome, and Montréal. For more than seven years, she directed exhibitions for the Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran in Montreal, and then was on the executive team at Catriona Jeffries Gallery, an internationally renowned Vancouver gallery. In 2022, she joined Giverny Caiptal as director of the collection, with the mission of preservation and development of the art collection, programming of exhibitions, and management of presentation venues.

Ann is also on the committee of honour of Danse Danse. Since 2020, she has been on the selection committee for the Éditions Esse auction; she has published numerous articles and exhibition reviews for the magazine.

“I think that choosing to be an artist in today’s society is one of the greatest commitments one can make. I’m pleased to support Éditions Esse, which relentlessly works to bring contemporary creation to light and offer it for reflection, and to show us both new and established art practices. The selection of works for the 2022 auction offers a solid overview. I would add that acquiring an artwork and experiencing it on a daily basis is certainly another way of living through art.”

Julie Bélisle recently joined the team at the Espace pour la vie museum complex, where she is in charge of cultural and artistic programming for the Biosphère. She was previously a consultant in visual arts for Ville de Montréal’s Service de la culture. Before that, she was head of digital content research and development at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2015–18). Her expertise in digital technologies in a museum context was called upon for various projects (Virtual Museum of Canada, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Plan culturel numérique du Québec, Art+Feminism). From 2004 to 2015, she was in charge of public programming at Galerie de l’UQAM, in addition to coordinating exhibitions and publications. She holds a doctorate in art history from UQAM. Her dissertation focused on the gathering of objects as an approach to creation, centring on issues related to consumption in art. She has published articles on numerous Québec and Canadian artists.

There’s something priceless about living with an artwork that one has fallen in love with and being able to look at it every day. I was happy to contribute to the selection of works for the Vendu-Sold auction this year and to support the artists and Esse magazine this way. Through the diversity of approaches that they present and the thoughts that they provoke, the works chosen reflect the spirit of the magazine.”

Manel Benchabane lives in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. She has studied visual arts, art history, and translation at Concordia University. An exhibition curator at the Stewart Hall Art Gallery since 2015, she has been responsible for exhibitions at the gallery since 2018. She organized the exhibitions Futurs imaginés (2016), Field Recordings (2017), Trames (2019), Matière, masse et poussière (2020), and La mouvance des sons (2021). She is interested in questions of nature and environment, diversity and cultural issues, heritage and feminism. In 2017, she co-founded the Club de dessin de Montréal, in which more than thirty artists participated. She regularly contributes to contemporary art magazines and sits on different committees and juries.

“We are so proud to present the selection of art works for this year’s auction! Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to add a new piece to your collection, all while supporting both our vibrant artist community and the activities of Les éditions Esse, a rigorous contemporary art magazine that brings together the work and voices of an entire art ecosystem.”

Mojeanne Behzadi is a curator and poet based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal. She is currently director of Art Speaks, an international contemporary art lecture series, and the curator of research and programming at Artexte Information Centre. Behzadi holds an MA in art history from Concordia University and works as an independent curator on numerous projects. She recently developed and hosted the Trajectories podcast for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and she curated the exhibition Spillover Love at the Stewart Hall Art Gallery in Pointe-Claire in 2021. Her current curatorial research focuses on love as a radical tool for resistance, mobilization, and social transformation. (Photo: Christopher Honeywell)

"The artists and the works that we are presenting are actively involved in exploring the world and integrating art into our lives. Again this year, you will discover an impressive group of works; some of them provoke engaged sociopolitical thought, while others claim poetic gesture as an artistic positioning."

Sylvette Babin holds a master’s in Open Media from Concordia University. Her art practice has led her to participate in numerous events across Canada and in around twenty European, Asian, and Latin American cities. Member of Esse magazine’s editorial committee for over twenty years, she has also been its director since 2002. She has published articles in diverse magazines, catalogues, and artist books.