Lise GAGNÉ

The forest is her temple. It is the space where she finds the best conditions for recollection and inspiration. In her art practice, Lise Gagné dedicates an unconditional love to trees and their by-product, handmade paper in particular – her material of choice for her mixed media works. A correspondence is established in her paintings, engravings and drawings with the forest, the undergrowth full of life, the endangered wetland, the vegetation and its changes throughout the seasons, and the clouds that sometimes appear in the water. She draws inspiration from the vast compendium offered by the everchanging nature.

By exploring the natural territories, Gagné plays with a form of pareidolia, where fantastic beings appear – beings of vegetative and animal nature. This nourishes her quest of perceiving and re-transmitting what lies beyond the eye. In her detailed drawings, an entangled geometry of line networks, hieroglyphs and a spontaneous calligraphy come alive giving an impression of lacework. The art of Lise Gagné oscillates between painting and photography. While her way of painting requires deep patience, photography allows her to quickly capture images. These pictures serve her as notes that will be transcribed in the studio. A dialogue is established naturally between these two mediums. As we lose ourselves in her labyrinthic forests and wetlands laced with tree reflections, Lise Gagné offers us baffling landscapes that require careful observation. It is a journey to the limits of the visible and the invisible. Her artworks are the representation of an allegorical offering calling for the preservation of the beauty in the world.

Born in Montréal, Lise Gagné leaves the Province of Québec in 1973 to travel around the world: from Mexico to Argentina, from Africa to Europe. In June 1975, she settles in Germany from where she can easily keep travelling. Her years of travel allows her to discover ancient civilizations and significant archeological sites like Stonehenge, the Valley of Kings, Louxor and Karnak, Cuzco and Sacsayhuamán. She loves getting lost in impressive museums, souks and markets full of colour. This global initiation takes hold of her and transforms her into an «image hunter». In 1980, she migrates to Winnipeg and studies anthropology focusing on Aboriginal Americans at the Saint Boniface College. Back in Quebec, in 1981, she enrolls in photography at the Dawson College and, for three years, attends Brother Jérôme’s workshops, her first mentor in painting. During the nineties, in addition to her active career in communications, she continues her art studies at UQAM with a specialization in engraving. She regularly attends live model workshop given on Saturdays at the Atelier Circulaire. Gagné will then follow numerous perfecting workshops and trainings, with painters and engraving artists like Kittie Bruneau, Carlos Calado, Antoine Pentsch, Lorraine Bénic, Dominique Sarrazin and Pierre-Léon Tétreault. Since 1994, Lise Gagné has participated in numerous individual and group events throughout the province. Her art has been chosen to be part of a recent publication gathering international artists who are passionated lovers of trees: Green Art: Trees, Leaves, and Roots, E. Ashley Rooney, Schiffer Publishing 2013

CLIQUEZ ICI / CLICK HERE (212 downloads ) to download the visual pamphlet of the group exhibition « PAYSAGES CROISÉS / HORIZONS INÉDITS »

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