New magazine HB out of Montreal celebrates contemporary drawing

A new twice-annual magazine celebrating drawing is being launched in Montreal on Wednesday. HB (presumably named after the pencil, although the logo is an eraser) describes itself thus:

HB is a magazine, a gallery on paper, a platform—a dynamic space dedicated to contemporary drawing. We intend to showcase the work of a wide range of artists, from the hard-to-miss who have made their mark on the artistic landscape and continue to shape it, to marginalised artists, young artists whose practices move and promise, artists who draw in hiding, artists who, by sheer misfortune, have as yet enjoyed little exposure. structured so that each page threads together a set of visual sequences, HB is a space for exchange that gives precedence to imagery over text.

The magazine was conceived and launched by Julie Tremble and Jonathan Demers, who enlisted a number of community partners, including Joyce Yahouda Gallery, Clark Center, ARPRIM (Montreal) and Saw Gallery (Ottawa). 

"The idea came when flipping through the magazine FUKT [published in Berlin]," says Tremble. "How is it that there is nothing of its kind in Quebec," Demers asked? "We started thinking about all the artists who make drawings and whose work is not really distributed."

According to an interview published in Le Devoir, HB will for now concentrate on drawings only, but won't follow a rigid formula. Tremble said they would like in future to look at drawing that is not only on paper -- such as tattooing -- and possibly animation.

The launch is at 5 p.m. at Bookstore Formats, 2, rue Sainte-Catherine Est, Montreal.