Closet Gallery is a live streamed project space located in a closet in an apartment in Montreal (2017 - ongoing) that was created by Lisa Theriault and Phil Mercier.
For each project, Theriault and Mercier invite an artist to install their work in the closet and it is shared at www.closetgallery.ca through a webcam live stream. Viewing hours are determined in relation to each project.
Closet Gallery brings an element of accessibility by existing online. It seeks to consider and engage with a wider public in a virtual space. Since its inception, Closet Gallery has been viewed for a combined total of over 25,000 minutes in 20 countries. The ease of availability of online content brings us to question how art will continue to be accessed. How can we push the limits of how art is viewed and disseminated online, and what is considered a “professional” space? The absurdness of a closet as an exhibition venue, a tiny space typically used to store things away from view, shows a humorous yet critical take on the spaces that are available to artists still early in their careers. What might be seen as a less than ideal venue, perhaps even an act of desperation, becomes a unique opportunity to make the most of what is available and investigate the challenges of a DIY space.
A behind-the-scenes view of the door to Closet Gallery and the server used to broadcast the live stream. The project Invitation for bodily being by Mischa Grieg is displayed
1. Georgia Graham did a live performance the final day of her project A Self in Constant Movement
2. Lisa Theriault installing Juliana Delgado's ice sculpture. A new sculpture was placed in the closet for each of the three days of Delgado's project Three Unattending Moons
3. The Stain Are We Ourselves by Alejandro Barbosa was presented in Closet Gallery in April 2018
Lisa Theriault 2024©