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BIO
François Desnoyers, born in St-Hyacinthe, Canada, in 1961, is a painter and digital artist. He was raised in Montreal and earned his visual arts degree from Concordia University in 1989. In the mid-1990s, he moved to Brossard, where he continues to live and work. Known mainly for his enigmatic scenes and dispirited landscapes, his expressionist style of figuration reveals a world of isolation and incommunicability gripped by mystery, uncertainty and apprehension. The artist makes his visual world intelligible on an intuitive and emotional level by withholding part of the information and inviting us to consider that some aspects of reality, like our perception of others, will always remain out of reach within the realms of desire and imagination. One of his earlier series, Mémoires (2000 – 2003), was showcased in Montreal at Lieu Ouest gallery in 2000 and at la Maison de la culture Côte-des-Neiges in 2001. His ongoing fascination with self-awareness and solitude led him to portray human interaction as a source of bewilderment and anxiety: Avignon (1998), exhibited at Gora gallery in 2001, Hurt (2002), exhibited at Gora gallery in 2003, Écho (2004), exhibited at Gora gallery in 2005 and Dernières lueures (2015), which was loaned to Culture Montérégie for a year in 2024 after it was exhibited at Gora gallery in 2015. Since then, a desire to create new series in line with the current and growing climate crisis compelled Desnoyers to explore the landscape genre with a non-conventional approach to surface. For the series Rag Lands (2023 – 2024), he systematically replaced canvas with old rags, used bed sheets and other discarded industrial fabric to signal precarity while simultaneously introducing in his work a special harmony of purpose between his medium and his subject matter. Desnoyers has garnered recognition both at home and abroad, showcasing his work in a range of solo and group exhibitions. In 2007, he was featured in the 21st painting and sculpture exhibition at the Chapelle Saint-Benoit in Argenton-sur-Creuse, France. The previous year, his art appeared in several group shows in Spain, including the New Art Barcelona exhibit and the 25th painting and sculpture exhibition at the municipal museum of Ourense. In 2006 in Canada, he also took part in the Montreal Festival of Japanese & Canadian Current Art. His international presence extended to art fairs in the United States, with appearances at New Art Miami in 2004 and at the Affordable Art Fair in New York in 2003. His artwork is held in various private, corporate, and public collections, including the Lavalin corporate collection, which is now part of the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art. |
CV
1961, birth in St-Hyacinthe, Canada Education
1986-1989: BFA in Studio art, Concordia university, Montreal, Canada Selected Solo Exhibitions
2015 "Desnoyers - Recent Paintings", Gora gallery, Montreal, Canada Selected Group Exhibitions and Art Fairs
2024 "ArtExpo Paris 2024", galerie Agnes Nord, Paris, France Public and private Collections
The Museum of Contemporary art of Montreal, Canada Press and publications Poésie des gestes quotidiens, Brossard: Le Courrier du Sud, 2007
Luk Côté, Peintures, (press release). Montreal: Maison de la culture Cote-des-neiges, 2001
Rémi Turgeon, Peintures récentes, (press release). Montreal: Gora Gallery, 2001 Selected events and commissions
2005 "Arte Mondo", televised interview conducted by Anita Aloisio. |