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Based in Brossard, Canada, François Desnoyers (1961 -) is a contemporary artist whose practice embraces both painting and digital art.
Best known for enigmatic scenes and ambiguous landscapes, his expressionist style of figuration reveals a world gripped by uncertainty and
apprehension. Desnoyers focuses on isolation and incommunicability by withholding and distorting part of the information, favoring an intuitive
and emotional narrative rather than a straightforward compilation of facts, thus stating that some aspects of reality, like our understanding of
others, will always remain out of reach, filled with gaps and left to the inner workings of personal desire and imagination.
One of his earlier series, Memories, was showcased in his first important solo exhibitions in Montreal, at Lieu Ouest gallery (2000) and at
la Maison de la culture Côte-des-Neiges (2001). Since 2015, a desire to create a series in line with the current and growing climate crisis
brought Desnoyers to explore the landscape genre with a non-conventional approach to surface, thus stretching the boundaries of the genre,
replacing canvas with old rags, used bed sheets and other discarded industrial fabric to signal degradation, precarity as well as to create
an aesthetic based on the representation of filth, thus introducing a special harmony of purpose between the material and the subject matter.
Desnoyers has garnered recognition through various solo and group shows in Canada and abroad. In 2007, he took part in the 21st exhibition of paintings and sculptures at
the Chapelle Saint-Benoit d’Argenton-sur-Creuse (France). In 2006, he participated in numerous group shows: the New Art Barcelona exhibit (Spain), the 25th exhibition of
paintings and sculptures at the municipal museum of Ourense (Spain) and the Montreal Festival of Japanese & Canadian Current Art (Canada). He also attended some art fairs
in the US: at New Art Miami in 2004 and in 2003 at the Affordable Art Fair in New York.
His work is part of various private, corporate and public collections, such as the Lavalin corporate collection which is now owned by the Montreal
Museum of contemporary art.
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Born in 1961, in St-Hyacinthe, Canada
Resides and works in Brossard, Canada
EDUCATION
1983-1986: BA in French literature, Montreal university, Montreal, Canada
1986-1989: BA in Studio art, Concordia university, Montreal, Canada
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 "Desnoyers - Oeuvres récentes", Gora gallery, Montreal, Canada
2007 "Poésie de la vie quotidienne", Brossard City Hall, Brossard, Canada
2005 "Desnoyers - Peintures récentes", Gora gallery, Montreal, Canada
2003 "Desnoyers - Peintures récentes", Gora gallery, Montreal, Canada
2001 "François Desnoyers, Peintures", Maison de la culture Côte-des-neiges, Montreal, Canada
2000 "Mémoires", Lieu Ouest gallery, Montreal, Canada
ART FAIRS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 "ArtExpo Paris 2024", galerie Agnès Nord, Paris, France
2006 "Festival d’art actuel Japonais/Canadien", Montreal, Canada
2006 "25e Exposition de peintures et de sculptures 2006", Municipal museum of Ourense, Ourense, Spain
2004 "Art Miami", Miami, USA
2003 "The Affordable Art Fair", New York, USA
2002 "New Art Barcelona", Barcelona, Spain
COLLECTIONS
The Museum of Contemporary art of Montreal, Canada
*
Bernard Lamarre, Montreal, Canada
Joe Padulo, Naples, USA
Jo Gora, Montreal, Canada
EVENTS AND COMMISSIONS
2005 Arte Mondo, televised interview conducted by Anita Aloisio.
2005 "Desnoyers on the Roof", Gora gallery, Montreal, Canada;
1992 Commission of a mural and two large metal artworks, Sharx Pool Bar, Montreal, Canada.
PRESS
"Poésie des gestes quotidiens", Le Courrier du Sud, june 30, p.33 (2007)
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