AKA Gallery is spearheaded by gallery director Linda Corriveau who has spent her life in the world of art galleries and museums.

As early as the late seventies, Linda Corriveau delved into the world of museums starting at the permanent site of Man and His World in Montreal, the famous legacy of the acclaimed Expo 67. It was in this context that she received her training from some of the finest exhibit designers in the country.

From her position as director of the Strange Strange World Pavilion which reached a constant 250,000 visitors per season, Linda Corriveau went on to become a consultant with Design and Communication, one of the best design companies in Canada, where she collaborated on the Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, the largest palaeontology museum in the world as well as other notable projects.

Unable to resist the allure of California, she moved there to work at the Museum of Ancient and Modern Art as curator and designer. For the next twenty years, she created over forty exhibitions spanning the centuries from antiquity to the present.

Alongside her museum career, Ms Corriveau managed and directed several art galleries while representing the twenty or so artists comprising the Grass Valley Graphics Group. In addition to her hands-on experiences with art, Linda Corriveau has authored several art books including Miro’s Dream, Pure Gesture and More Color Less Soul.

Ms. Corriveau recently returned to the East Coast where she rediscovered the art of Corno. It was only a matter of time before the idea of opening a gallery would take hold in her. Montreal seemed like a perfect city.

And so it was that AKA Gallery was born much to the delight of Montreal collectors who have long supported Corno and continue their love affair with this artist whose work is now acclaimed worldwide — from New York to London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Singapore, to name a few of the world capitals where her art resonates with universal appeal.

ABOUT CORNO

Corno was born in 1952 in Chicoutimi, a small town in Northern Quebec near the inspiring landscapes of the immense Lac St Jean and the grandiose fjords of the Saguenay River.

From her earliest childhood, she was steeped in the arts with lessons in classical ballet, piano and drawing. It was under these circumstances that she first became fascinated by the movement of the human body and decided to become a dancer. But by the time Corno graduated from college and arrived in Montreal at the age of 17, she had refocused her ambitions on fine art. She studied at the University of Quebec in Montreal where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art teaching four years later.

It took no time at all for Corno to realize that teaching was not meant for her and that she had to create. So she turned to painting full time and by the age of 23, she was already living off of her art. The Clarence Gagnon Gallery located on the prestigious Sherbrooke   Street among the best galleries in Montreal was the first to recognize her talents and represent her. She soon had her first one-woman show with them and from that point on was off and running with a career that grew in leaps and bounds.

Her shows are too numerous to count. By the late 1980s, she had become the darling of Montreal collectors and the most collectible of Quebec artists. She was the featured artist at the Quebec Pavilion at Expo 86 in Vancouver. By then, her reputation had grown across Canada and she had shows in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver. By the late 80s and early 90s, she was represented by Yves Laroche Gallery and was one of the most prominent artists in the entire country.

While Corno’s market grew stronger and stronger in Canada, she began making inroads in the US market with shows at the Morgan Gallery in Boston and the Broome Street Gallery in New York   City. Having reached enviable success in Canada, there was no place to go but south of the border if she was to conquer more worlds.

So in 1992, Corno packed her bags and left her penthouse behind, and moved to New York city with her dreams of reaching international fame and success. With great determination and perseverance she worked hard at reaching the next level and opening the golden doors which beckoned her on.

She participated in many group shows at galleries including Selima Gallery, Atmosphere Gallery, Skylight 6 Studio, Art Mode Gallery, Novo Studio, the Alternative Museum, and the Broome Street Gallery. She also was the featured artist at events taking place at Tristan & America, Twilo, and Paul LaBrecque Spa & Gallery. She participated in shows at the Morgan Gallery in Boston, San Diego State University, Fort Lauderdale’s Art Frenzié Gallery, the North-South Design Gallery in Miami, and in Philadelphia. Following in the footsteps of famous artists like Georgia O’Keefe and Salvador Dali, Corno was the featured artist at the prestigious Steuben Glass on Madison Avenue in New York City.

The new millenium was a turning point for Corno’s career. Opera Gallery in Soho enthusiastically began representing her. In just a few years, they had galleries in the best locations in some of the world’s greatest cities: Spring Street in New York, the Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, New Bond Street in London (Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth shops down the street at Harrod’s!) Bal Harbour in Miami, Singapore, and Hong Kong. One after another they began offering her art and, in no time at all, she became one the gallery’s best-selling artists in all of their locations.

In July 2006, Corno had yet another sell-out show at Opera Gallery Hong Kong. October 2006 will be a very busy month. A one-woman show is scheduled at the luxurious Left Coast Galleries in Los Angeles and AKA Gallery, located on Montreal’s gallery row, will represent her works exclusively. Meanwhile, her art continues to be on permanent display around the world.

Over the past several years, Corno has been interviewed by countless newspaper journalists, magazine writers, television and radio hosts in the United States and Canada. Never afraid to go off the beaten path, she made a guest appearance on the Food Network where an entire show was filmed in her kitchen and studio! Another unusual appearance in 2005 was the Massive Media Techno-Graffiti Event which took place at the upscale Columbus Circle and at the bustling Union Square in New York City where, for four nights straight, Corno’s art was projected larger than life on building façades in bold hi-tech fashion much to the delight of thousands of passersby. In 2005, Corno was also the featured artist at the high-brow international fashion event The Train which attracted the likes of celebrities such as Chelsea Clinton

At the end of 2005, Corno was filmed in her studio in a documentary titled The Art of the Nude produced and directed by Emmy award-winning film-maker Bernar Hébert who captured intimate footage of Corno painting with a model in her studio. She gave an in-depth interview that revealed some of the hidden faces of the powerful woman behind the brush. The documentary is scheduled for television release in the fall of 2006 and will be aired on Bravo!, ART-TV, France 5 and Radio-Canada Television. More recently, Corno was interviewed by Chatelaine Magazine and CBC / Radio-Canada Television about 9/11 – 5 years after as an artist living and working near ground-zero.

At the beginning of 2006, Corno was the featured artist at the Premiere of Alegria, a spectacular show created by the world-famous Cirque du Soleil at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London. The idea was instigated by Daniel Lamarre, President and COO of the Cirque. Her works were hung in the VIP room as well as at the swank Roof Gardens where more celebrations took place.

Corno has collectors all over the world enthusiastically raving about her art. After much hard work, she is enjoying her well-deserved success and has this to say to her peers, “Believe in yourself. Listen to your inner voice. Follow your dream.”

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AKA GALLERY

 51 Saint-Paul Street West 

Montreal, QC H2Y 1Z1  

Tel : 514 847 9539

www.akagallery.com