SOLO EXHIBITION
SOLO EXHIBITION
SOLO EXHIBITION
The World's Leading Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
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The World's Leading Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
Paul
Gregoire
CANADA
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“The work must thwart expectations, generate surprise, and this, for both the viewer and the creator.”
Paul Grégoire's lives and works in Montreal and in Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Canada. Although painting is the mode of expression Paul Grégoire favours since 2015, his sustained practice of sculpture, installation, performance, video, music, literature and osteology continuously feeds and influences his pictorial universe.
The ghosts of horses are haunting the skeleton of the child who believes he has control of his destiny. But the horses, unlike the Chariot tarot card, pull in opposite directions and the child sits on the black box of the unknown.
From one medium to another, he looks for the most spontaneous or direct way to translate his hungry imaginary. Therefore, for him, the idea has always preponderance over the means used to bring it into the world.
The octopus, soft and invertebrate, considered to have superior intelligence, sits enthroned on a table. It tries to solve the mystery of the black row of death.
From 1970 to 2005, his artistic cursus thereby mainly translates itself into sculpture and installation work. He presented solo exhibitions in several contemporary art galleries and museums in Québec and took part in sculpture symposiums. He has received many grants from the Canada and Québec Councils for the Arts.
“His field of action is voluntarily open to all possibilities.”
In 1980, he was also engaged into a saxophonist and singer’s career where music, theatre and artistic performance meet. In the mid-1990s, performance became a recurrent feature to his approach.
“When making a work, he defuses one by one the intentions and preconceived ideas that tend to guide the creative process.”
He was invited to different action art festivals in Japan, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Québec. Moreover, he organized the international performance event «Déranger l’espace» that took place in Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, from 2001 to 2005.
A swordfish catching itself in a self-censorship. He forgets that he could cut his ties himself.
“Paul Grégoire's ongoing research work led him to adopt a head-on approach to several disciplines directly or indirectly linked to visual arts.”
Particular union of two different entities where the creative association becomes impossible due to the hostility of one and the blindness of the other.
Literature-wise, he has been the author of a column in the art magazine ESSE for 10 years. He has also published four novels, a collection of true anecdotes and, recently, an autobiographical graphic story.
Union by the absurd. The idea of solving a problem by using the very source of the problem.
In the early 2000s, Paul Grégoire developed a more sustained practice of osteology that influenced more precisely his aesthetic preoccupation. Since he reassembled many mammal skeletons, including a sperm whale that can be seen in the entrance hall of the Musée de la Mer in Îles-de-la-Madeleine, it is through painting that this new source of inspiration mostly materialized itself.
Twins feeding themselves without suspecting that they will slowly choke without outside help.
His pictorial practice explores the potential of various narrative forms related to our era and the human condition. Tales, mythology and symbolism shape his language, and he often uses animal representation as a symbol of human feelings.
The egg with two yolks. To life and death until the memory of times.
“He showed his works in solo exhibitions and also in many international online galleries and magazines.”
Reminder of the fight for freedom until death.
His images are both a source of fascination and anguish. Beyond any form of morality or a priori, he seeks to explore the complexity of being and the struggle resulting from an inner duality. Death and injustice are themes of particular interest to him. His work can be qualified as narrative with a touch of dark humour.
A single heart to untangle the gears of having two heads.
Positioning himself as both a "storytelling artist" and an "artist sabotaging familiar landmarks", his creative process is guided by the idea that the work must remain subject to a change of direction at any time during its realization.
In the Judeo-Christian forest of death, we are condemned to live our mistakes forever.