Geneviève LeBel
About
After her university studies in visual arts, she developed the expression of her poetic language by exploring a variety of materials, both in 2D and 3D. For 25 years, she creates and exhibits (group shows, cultural centres, private shows…), but her unrestrained and practical approach to the material and her artistic vision have garnered a lot of attention in the field of scenic art, whether in cinema, the circus, theatre or museography, where she is in high demand. Nature is never far away, as evidenced by her numerous collaborations with the Botanical Garden. For her, however, nothing is more important than her personal obsession: the understanding of her numerous human states through the automatism of gestures, in an art that she considers free of external influences. The pandemic of 2020 finally allows her to dive deeply into this universe and paper becomes the main medium of her work. A surprising paradox: it is through a great global tumult that a microcosm takes root in her studio, a still island of calm and introspection, conducive to listening to the unconscious. The point of entry is reached, poetry can express itself. Her work is quickly spotted by collectors. In July 2021, Robert Birch, president of the Birch Contemporary art gallery in Toronto, lists her as one of the rising figures of Canadian contemporary sculpture in the publication Sculpture 2021.
Statement
Originally from Squatec in Témiscouata, Quebec, she was born in the middle of the forest, in the midst of deep lakes, rivers and the great river. Growing up, she floats on the wind, and she invents her own games. Her hands are feverish, restless, creative. She seems to be looking for something: she tears, she ties, she shapes relentlessly in an eternal dialogue with the material. And matter seems to answer her, sending her back to her own nature. Her hands become one with the pulp of paper, her twin fibre. A fibre that holds the strength of a tree but also the finesse and subtlety of water. Through the verticality of the forms, the artist and matter talk of their common forest origin, of the greatness of human utopias and the strength it takes to embody them. She shares with the pulp her own story through images of flower-women, root-women, column-women, stone-women, sea-women. Through repetition and multitude, she teaches the fibre that one is capable of adaptability and flexibility, of patience and renewal.
Social medias
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