Perfectly situated in the heart of picturesque and woodsy Forestburgh sits Wilderness Lake House, a rustic yet uniquely refined Scandinavian-inspired retreat surrounded by lush, verdant grounds and unparalleled lake views. Perched on 5 acres in the New York Catskill region, Wilderness Lake House was established as a wooded retreat for Montague Contemporary and to house the Montague Residency.

This eclectic oasis offers a peaceful and tranquil sojourn away from the city, but within minutes to the Forestburgh Playhouse, the recently opened Assembly Museum in Monticello, Denniston Hill in Fallsburg, and a variety of nature-oriented activities amongst thousands of acres of State Forest and protected reservoirs.

Each year, one artist-in-residence will be awarded a month long residency at Wilderness Lake House.

Located in the heart of the Chelsea Arts District, the Gallery is ideally situated for an in-depth exploration of all that New York City has to offer.  Montague Contemporary offers one annual resident a "takeover" of the Gallery for the month of August culminating in a solo exhibition for the first two weeks of September.

Our latest project is still underway, but is located in the picturesque town of West Stockbridge. Minutes from cultural attractions such as Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow, Turn Park Art Space, Foreland Art Space, Art Omi, and much more.  More details forthcoming in late 2023.

We are thrilled to announce the inaugural Montague Fellow for 2022, Thameur Mejri.

Heavily inspired by Roland Barthes, Derrida, Picasso, and David Lynch, Thameur Mejri’s apophatic canvases are deconstruction in the flesh, expressing what he calls a “secular exorcism.” This active deconstruction is done to showcase the violent hierarchy of the signified over signifier, to make some sense of how we as humans are conditioned by dogma, circumstance, and the power elite.⁣

To achieve any understanding of our conditioning, Mejri feels we must deconstruct our landscape, our surroundings, and ourselves to free ourselves from the external – to shed light on the difference, as Derrida mentions, to regain control of ourselves and to see objects and our environment for what it does to us, how it shapes us, and how it threatens our existence while at the same time shaping it. His canvases are an exercise in cathartic release, to look inwards and outwards at the same time, so to free ourselves from the shackles of our dogmatic existence.⁣

 

He has exhibited widely, including recent solo exhibitions at MAC Lyons, France (2022), Selma Feriani, London (2022), Montague Contemporary, New York (2021), and group exhibitions at the Carlos Museum, Atlanta (2022), 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London (2020), the 13th Cairo Biennial, Cairo, Egypt (2019) Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Dakar, Senegal (2018), N' Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, USA (2018).

 

Mejri’s work forms part of many prestigious collections of art, including The Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE; The Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Luanda, Angola; Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon; The Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech, Morocco;Musée d'art Contemporain - MAC Lyons, France.