Yoakim Bélanger is a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist from Montreal and he’s been spending the last couple of months producing paintings in a church in downtown Montréal. The uniqueness of his approach lies most obviously in his use of steel. Damaged by time and rust, its texture forms the basis of his works. He then engages in a silent dialogue with the metal in order to decipher its secrets and create a performance space where the different elements compete in their own paradoxes, i.e., dark vs clarity, abstraction vs figuration, spirit vs matter … Using the nude as a medium in its own right, his bodies are prisms of emotion, color, and light; reconciling the dualities which drive us all. Belanger’s work explores the complexity of humanity through the collective and the individual. Sometimes inspired by his own film stills his paintings capture a split-second of a movement, an expression, an embrace etc. You can view the many videos narrating his residency on the dedicated website. ( By Eve d’Oréfice ) For more information we invite you to contact Alexandra Conners – alexandra@galerieleroyer.com and follow the link below.
