Michel Daigneault is an artist among the generation of new abstracts painters that came after Abstract Painting. For those earlier painters, it seemed that everything had been said and done in abstraction, but Daigneault’s paintings reveal new pictorial possibilities. Although his paintings are clearly non-figurative, they constantly play with the concept, colours, forms and space of figuration. These elements encourage the viewer to read the painting through analogy. Gaston Saint-Pierre describes this aspect of Daigneault’s work. “Michel Daigneault’s painting is governed by interference, convergence and the mutability of systems and visual styles. In his painting, we are not in the field of illusion, but in the field of allusion”.

What makes Daigneault’s paintings unique is his ability to be at one and the same time seductive, visionary and ambiguous yet resistant to the perils of painterly pathos. The spectator confronted by the constant mutation of images gets drawn like a child, into exploring each and every detail. According to Serge Tisseron, this way of approaching an image “…allows the viewer not only to apprehend an image but certainly to enter and inhabit it”. These paintings allow us to create associations, which in turn transform our perception of the various elements of the paintings.

Michel Daigneault was born in Montreal, where he completed a B.A. in Fines Arts at Concordia University and a Master in Art History at the Université de Montréal. He has exhibited in a number of solo and group shows across Canada, in the United States and France. His work is represented in many public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Collection Desjardins, the Musée de Joliette and the Canada Council Art Bank. As a professor, Daigneault joined York University’s Visual Arts Department in 2002. His previous teaching appointments were at Ohio State University; Columbus, Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, Halifax; Emily Carr School of Art and Design; Vancouver; and the University of Lethbridge; Alberta. He has also taught at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Quebec and École nationale d’art de Cergy Pontoise in France. He is currently represented in the exhibition La question de l’abstraction at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

Curriculum Vitae

Video Portrait

Exhibitions

Press

• 2013. 01. 01. - Émilie Grandmont-Bérubé. Je l’ai vu de mes propres yeux, Galerie Trois Points. web | PDF
• 2007. 12. 01. - James D. Campbell. A “Dangerous” Painting, ETC. web | PDF
• 2007. 05. 05. - René Viau. Peindre? Oui, mais quelle peinture?, Le Devoir. web | PDF
• 2007. 05. 05. - René Viau. Michel Daigneault: attention, terrain miné!, Le Devoir. PDF
• 2005. 04. 16. - Bernard Lamarche. Des généalogies qui parlent, Le Devoir. web | PDF
• 2002. 03. 01. - Pascale Beaudet. Cartographies et flux, ETC. web | PDF
• 2001. 11. 17. - Gary Michael Dault. Michel Daigneault at Pari Nadimi, The Globe and Mail. web | PDF
• 2000. 04. 21. - Gary Michael Dault. Don’t look at me like that, Canadian Art. PDF
• 1998. 12. 21. - Roald Nasgaard. Abstract Painting | Peinture Abstraite, Canadian Art. PDF
• 1998. 09. 21. - Jean-Jacques Bernier. Grammaire de la vision, Vie des Arts. web | PDF
• 1996. 12. 14. - Bernard Lamarche. Le retour du refoulé, Le Devoir. PDF
• 1996. 03. 21. - Eric Boullenger. L’abstraction s’explique, Journal de Gennevil. PDF
• 1994. 05. 01. - Gavin Affleck. Perspectives on space-making, ETC. web | PDF
• 1994. 01. 01. - Marie Perrault. Michel Daigneault, C magasine. PDF
• 1993. 09. 04. - Mona Hakim. La peinture formaliste “nouveau genre”, Le Devoir. PDF
• 1993. 01. 01. - Gaston Saint-Pierre. Dépliant galerie, . PDF
• 1992. 01. 03. - Kate Taylor. Art About, The Globe and Mail. PDF
• 1991. 01. 20. - Raymond Bernathez. Recherche sur les tons chauds et froids, ainsi que marteau et enclume, La Presse. PDF
• 1991. 01. 01. - Jean Dumont. Daigneault, Jarnuskiewicz, Le Devoir. PDF
• 1985. 09. 01. - Jean Tourangeau. Peinture au Québec Une nouvelle génération, Vanguard. PDF
• 1985. 05. 19. - Lois Crawford. Artists’ various interiors interpret a common theme, The Post. PDF
• 1984. 01. 01. - René Payant . Travestissements architecturaux, Parachute. PDF