Bringing together twenty works from his new series “Sic Transit,” this exhibition unveils a previously unseen body of oil paintings, inspired by photographs captured by the artist over the past twenty-five years. Drawing from his personal archives, Rafael reveals fragments of intimacy: memories of travels, landscapes, portraits, and studio scenes. Resembling a private photo album, the collection evokes, with a certain melancholy, the passage of time and the ephemeral nature of things.
It is with great pleasure that I accepted the invitation to join the team of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville for the 2023 edition. Produced for 40 years by Productions Plateforme, FIMAV’s mandate is to promote and disseminate new experimental and improvisational music, both from Quebec, Canada and around the world. The “Traces of Empire” exhibition brings together paintings from two different series, Wapizagonke and Empire, produced between 2017 and 2021. Looking forward to immerse myself in these atmospheres in the heart of the Bois-Francs region.
Mural produced in the fall of 2021 following a call for projects as part of Tourisme Montréal’s centennial and produced by Mu. The mural is designed as a trompe l’oeil from which emerge dynamic and evocative shapes, amongst which recognizable icons of the city appear as icons. Façades : Fenêtres sur ma ville required more than 2000 hours of work, 25 different maquettes, 600 liters of paint for an area of 16,000 square feet.
Certainly one of my great painting adventures, Façades : Fenêtres sur ma ville was a challenge of endurance and concentration. Supported by a team of experienced corsairs, tossed about by the wind, exposed to the cold chill of November, we brought the ship back to port and earned our stripes as a team… even the sailor Michel de la Chenelière carried the brush high for the cause.
Photos Olivier Bousquet
The Empire painting series comes from a desire to question the role of power and money in culture, and its impact on people’s lives, on the work of artists. It seems obvious that recent art history can be interpreted as the result of great empires justifying their importance through culture. The artist here explores the historical relationship between art and power, he creates paintings that offer more than a vehicle for the dominant values and which, in the end, speak of freedom.
The figurative paintings being an exploration of his own relationship to art and culture, the artist creates a series of paintings that evoke the notion of Empire, with its effects on populations, but also on art history and current cultural creation. Working in a realistic style from photographic sources, he confronts the realities evoked in the paintings by juxtaposing them, by making them strange, by constructing a poetic arrangement. The subjects are varied, inspired by images taken in spectacular settings that highlight the relationship between art and money (a fashion show or a performance in a large hall). Continue reading