Jérôme Fortin
24 Mar - 12 May 2007
Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is pleased to present a solo exhibition of recent works created by Jérôme Fortin in parallel to his solo exhibition at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal:
This exhibition presents mostly recent works, including some not previously shown, by Québec artist Jérôme Fortin. In the past decade or so, Fortin has produced several remarkable series using everyday objects. From collections of manufactured articles, laid out in showcases as if they were displays at an ethnographic museum, to more formal assemblages of serial objects put together in constructions that are at once pictorial and sculptural, Fortin’s works exert the same fascination and suggest the same capacity for ritual of gesture, transformation of materials and the emergence of poetry.
Fortin’s recent output forms the cornerstone of the exhibition and sheds light on his artistic progression toward his current focus on a pared-down art that reveals “next to nothing” through his relentless and obsessive working of the actual material of the found object. A native of Joliette, Jérôme Fortin lives and works in Montréal. He has shown his work regularly since 1996 in solo and group exhibitions in Canada and abroad.
With his sculpture-installations, Jérôme Fortin combines his work with cabinets of curiosities — the 17th century's private museums — and the 20th and 21st centuries' practice of mass consumption. Corks, plastic bottles, books, matches, nails, and tin cans are cunningly handled and assembled in several series of visual curiosities. Their colours, forms, textures, and volumes suggest the flowers, seashells, jewelry, and amulets once collected by the curious for their exotic flavour. The poetic, mysterious allure of Fortin's sculptures sets aside the usual aspect of everyday objects so as to exalt in our contemporary gaze.
1. Jérôme Fortin, Écran (detail), 2006, collage, courtesy of Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, Montréal. Photo : Richard-Max Tremblay
This exhibition presents mostly recent works, including some not previously shown, by Québec artist Jérôme Fortin. In the past decade or so, Fortin has produced several remarkable series using everyday objects. From collections of manufactured articles, laid out in showcases as if they were displays at an ethnographic museum, to more formal assemblages of serial objects put together in constructions that are at once pictorial and sculptural, Fortin’s works exert the same fascination and suggest the same capacity for ritual of gesture, transformation of materials and the emergence of poetry.
Fortin’s recent output forms the cornerstone of the exhibition and sheds light on his artistic progression toward his current focus on a pared-down art that reveals “next to nothing” through his relentless and obsessive working of the actual material of the found object. A native of Joliette, Jérôme Fortin lives and works in Montréal. He has shown his work regularly since 1996 in solo and group exhibitions in Canada and abroad.
With his sculpture-installations, Jérôme Fortin combines his work with cabinets of curiosities — the 17th century's private museums — and the 20th and 21st centuries' practice of mass consumption. Corks, plastic bottles, books, matches, nails, and tin cans are cunningly handled and assembled in several series of visual curiosities. Their colours, forms, textures, and volumes suggest the flowers, seashells, jewelry, and amulets once collected by the curious for their exotic flavour. The poetic, mysterious allure of Fortin's sculptures sets aside the usual aspect of everyday objects so as to exalt in our contemporary gaze.
1. Jérôme Fortin, Écran (detail), 2006, collage, courtesy of Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, Montréal. Photo : Richard-Max Tremblay