A Quebec artist pays tribute to Karim Olette

A portrait paying tribute to musician Karim Ouellet, who died in 2021, was a big hit during the Nous Suisse ICI theater company's Happening-Benefit auction.

Laval-based artist Emily Turcotte, better known by the pseudonym ET, offered this work in her visual signature image at Friday's benefit evening auction.

“I was called to offer a job […] I immediately thought that my work would be great as a tribute to Karim Oulet, an ET artist from Old Quebec since 2016. I am glad that the work that was put up for silent auction was well contested.

The traces of different shapes and colors that characterize his work “create only one image, in the same proportion that humans are unique, but only one nature”, we read in the description of the work.

The portrait of the musician in acrylic on wood was designed in the spring of 2023. It is valued at $750.

Recall that on January 17, 2022, Karim Oulet was found lifeless in a music studio in the Saint-Roch district. His death was dated November 15, 2021, according to Coroner Sophie Regnier's report.

The benefit walk, which began in 2008, aims to raise funds for the theater company We Are Here. This year, the event also celebrated the company's 15th anniversary.

Simon Bouleris and Elise Guilbault were the guest DJs for this edition, during which $40,000 was raised.