Maison Depoivre reopens

Art gallery has a new home in renovated space

The former Officers’ Quarters at Camp Picton (now Base31) has been renovated to become the new site of the Maison Depoivre Art Gallery. Maison Depoivre co-creators Christophe Doussot and Vincent Depoivre arrived in the County in 2012 and operated a bed and breakfast just outside Bloomfield. They staged an art show during their second year, and that evolved into a passion. “Very quickly after that we started to have show openings with local artists and that became so successful that we became hooked to the gallery aspect of our business,” said Doussot. “In 2017 we relocated to Camp Picton and we decided to fully focus on the art gallery.” For Depoivre and Doussot, showing art in a gallery setting is a means of initiating a conversation between the artworks and the viewer. “We are fascinated by the conversations that happen when art is presented in this space. It is the conversations between the different artworks that are installed, and that’s why we like presenting group shows, because there’s a dynamic of artworks talking to each other, almost, but we also have the conversations between the artists and the visitors. Sometimes it’s a virtual conversation because the artists are not always in the space. We enjoy seeing the reactions and what the visitors are taking from seeing the artworks,” said Doussot.

The artworks at Maison Depoivre come in a range of price points, and the aim of Doussot and Depoivre is to promote having original works of art in everybody’s homes. They also support local artists, and will often pair a local artist with a visiting artist to provide a cross-over exposure for each of them. They also make a point of giving a voice to marginalized groups or to artists who struggle to find commercial galleries to present their works. They presented the first art show in the County dedicated to Black Canadian artists, and have displayed works by refugees who have found a safe home in this country and have also featured works that address masculinity and gender identification.

The new space has been a year in the making, and fulfils the vision of Doussot and Depoivre for their gallery design, which makes good use of the natural ambient light. “This is thanks to the support of Base31 for the shared passion for arts and culture. They believed in our vision and supported us and renovated this building with the design that Vincent and I created, with several gallery spaces because we thought that it was important to be able to present several shows at the same time,” said Doussot. The gallery space will be shared by Akasha Art Projects, which provides high quality framing services, art restoration and photo printing. “We have always been very aligned with Akasha Art projects and the quality of the work they do. Last year we started to talk about the future space of Maison Depoivre and it coincided with the fact that Kelly [Kyle] and Sonja [Scharf] felt they were ready to bring a satellite of Akasha to the County,” said Doussot.

The official grand opening of the new Maison Depoivre space is scheduled for later this month, but this past weekend there was a preview of the new space and exhibit of ANEW featuring the works of many artists who have previously shown at Maison Depoivre. The artists include painters Stewart Jones, Deborah Root, Peter Mennacher and Mile Murtanovski, photographer Graham Davis and fabric artist Pauline Dinham, among others. There are several other events planned prior to the grand opening, including a presentation by Books & Company of authors available for book signing and conversation on May 7 from 2 to 4 p.m. For more information, please visit maison-depoivre.com.