With this new exhibition, Marie-Eve Beaulieu returns to photography as a step preliminary to painting, employing it as a tool to observe and capture what surrounds her. These new works continue the explorations evident in the series L’image fuyante : faire écran, shown at the Papier 2019 art fair, since the artist is once again turning her focus on the residues of paint and scraps of paper in her studio. Industrial sites and their remains underlie her work; in the case of this series, the waste materials she was able to document in a Montréal recycling facility inspired her. 

This new group of works was painted in oil on a commercial plaster surface that was left in its raw state, with no alteration or adding of colour. Each painting is formed of small juxtaposed bits of toned-down, broken-up and shaded colours. With a kind of figure tending to appear, split up, and undergo a change, the artist plays with the materiality and tactile aspect of the pictorial surface. As in many other of her works, here Marie-Eve Beaulieu prompts us to think about our overconsumption in respect to raw materials and what that entails—namely waste—despite the raising of awareness and good intentions concerning recycling. This particular corpus also indirectly alludes to a loss of energy related to such waste that overwhelms our daily life in both the private (in the home) and public (in industry) spheres.  

The artist thanks the Canada Council for the Arts for its support.

Photos: Guy L'Heureux

First image: «Broyer du territoire 03», 2020, oil on plaster, 141 x 152 cm