Rusdi GENEST R.C.A. (1939-2019)

While discovering Rusdi Genest’s bronze sculptures and reliefs of papers materials, you can see symbolic poems, amusing symphonies or enigmatic concertos. Witness of our unpredictable humanity, occurrence of funny or eccentric moments, Genest creates instinctively; he juxtaposes random sketches, prints and textured sand fragments, harmonizes them in various intriguing expressionist attitudes. The creative development of each work is, for the artist, a kind of random and spontaneous automatic process. He constantly tries to develop a formal world, which leads to an open vision that guides him, despite himself, through the achievement of each piece of work. He composes pieces one by one, from a gesture to another and by random connections he observes, letting his creative instinct guides the formal acuity until the composition reveals itself. Surprised by countless attitudes and postures, but also by random and unexpected juxtapositions and combinations, he does not know in advance what the artwork will look like and what will be its meaning. With these compositions and accumulations, the artist manages to create an expression of human intensity. Once completed, it will inspire its title.

Rusdi Genest’s work focuses on the human form which, for him, remains a reflection of the collective unconsciousness. He uses bodies and faces that transmit, in an expressionist manner, the infinite frame of emotions, life moments of humorous passions, fantasies and outrages, all experienced by humans.

Rusdi Genest was born in Sherbrooke, in 1939. Former student of the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, Genest continued his artistic training in the United States and France. He lived in California, from 1964 to 1970, and he specialized in sculpture at the University of California at Long Beach. Later, he taught sculpture and participated in creative, dance and theater workshops. In France, he studied at École des beaux-arts de Paris and École des métiers d’art. He worked with sculptors, such as: Caesar, Martin, Couturier and Volpi. Back in Canada, Genest graduated in Fine Arts at UQÀM in 1981. For several years, he taught sculpture at Université du Québec in Chicoutimi and then at École des beaux-arts Saidye Bronfman, in Montréal. Rusdi Genest won awards in California, Paris, Ravenna (Italy), Toronto and is a member of the Canadian Royal Academy of Arts. He made monuments integrated to architecture ​​and obtained several government grants. His work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in museums and public collections around the world, among others: the National Archives and the National Library of Canada.

CLICK HERE to view the video for the exhibition “À LA CROISÉE DES MYTHES”
CLIQUEZ ICI/CLICK HERE (116 downloads) to download the visual pamphlet of the exhibition “À LA CROISÉE DES MYTHES”
CLICK HERE to visualize the video “Who is Rusdi Genest” by Vincent Dionne