Je l’ai vu de mes propres yeux
April 6 - May 18, 2013
It is with great enthusiasm that the Galerie Trois Points presents from April 6 to May 11, 2013, I saw it with my own eyes, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Michel Daigneault.
Daigneault’s work plays on both sides of the border between abstraction and figuration, without ever pledging allegiance to either. His work, which constantly plays with suggestions and allusions, deploys a multitude of windows opening onto a set stage of competing realities. His soft pastel shades opposed by the deepest blacks offer a palette of particularly vibrant colours. Shafts of light coming from the top, side and back of the paintings modulate the colours and create subtle shifts in the translucency and depth of the architectonic forms that structure these paintings.
At the heart of Daigneault’s paintings lies a composition of planes, motifs and surfaces that alludes to the real space by abstract means. He invites us to reflect on what makes a work abstract or representational. He obviously takes pleasure in using simple shapes and rich colours to create an intrigue that evokes, rather than reveals, the narrative potential of his works. The mirroring of different elements and the subsequent overlapping of forms and masses complexify his compositions and destabilize our relationship to space and invite the viewer to suspend any fixed reading of the painting.
Michel Daigneault lives and works in Montreal and in Toronto where he also teaches at York University. His work has been exhibited widely in Canada and the United States, as well as France and Korea and his work can be found in many private and museum collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Collection Prêt d’œuvres d’art of Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d’art de Joliette, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Canada Council Art Bank, National Bank of Canada, Hydro-Québec, Royal Bank of Canada, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the University of Lethbridge.