ARTGEIST II – FREE FIGURES – Ciel variable Magazine

Artworks created as part of the fund-raising campaign
ARTGEIST II – FREE FIGURES (2015-2016)

Ciel variable presents the artworks created and acquired during its second fund-raising campaign, conducted in 2015–16. In the same spirit as Sitegeist, the 2012–13 campaign, Artgeist proposed that collectors support the magazine by acquiring an original work created specifically for them. This project also offered them the opportunity to meet with an artist of their choice in order to discuss their respective aesthetic motivations and thus to define the parameters of the work to be produced.

This second campaign was focused around the theme of the portrait, understood in the broadest way possible – a self-portrait, or a portrait of loved ones, or even a portrait of someone with an important symbolic value. One might even have conceived of an image evoking someone absent through an object or a place. Free Figures was open to such diversity of sensibilities and possible interpretations of the portrait. The resulting artworks brought a number of these possibilities to life…

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Angela Grauerholz and Pascal Grandmaison came into play for collector Jack Lazare by each proposing a close-up portrait of women, Deux dames de Venise and Action 2, that was situated more in the realm of the emblematic than the personal. The encounter between Éliane Excoffier and Joanie Lapalme resulted in an evocative portrait: a shot of Joanie taken from the back in a field, on which a close-up of a face was superimposed. Philippe Lamarre and Nathalie Goyette chose, with Benoît Aquin, to highlight Nathalie, but in relative darkness, at a distance, and as if encased in a tangle of trees and branches. For Annie Boisvert and Benoît Lacoste Bienvenue, Marisa Portolese produced a studio portrait of their daughter Sophia, somewhat in Notmanesque style, before a painted landscape and an immense bouquet of flowers.

We are infinitely grateful to these artists and collectors who agreed to support the magazine by engaging in the process of encounters and creation. Each of them also wrote a few words to accompany the artworks that we present here. Our sincere thanks also go to the gallery owners who represent these artists and to our partner, ENCADREX, which generously framed the works.

Angela Grauerholz, Deux dames de Venise – for Jack Lazare

This portrait of two women, taken in the famous Caffè Florian in Venice, was one of those rare occasions when I asked somebody if I could take their photograph. To my surprise the two women agreed immediately. They trusted me without hesitation. They did not even ask what I wanted their photograph for, so deeply were they in their own ...
Pascal Grandmaison, Action 2 – for Jack Lazare

J’ai pris cette photo à la tombée de la nuit en croyant voir surgir le cri d’Edvar Munch tout près de moi.

Après la visite de la collection de Jack, il y a une image que j’ai faite il y a 10 ans, et que je n’ai jamais montrée, qui me revenait en tête en lien à sa façon de voir ...
Éliane Excoffier, Un, deux, trois (vers le nord) – for Joanie Lapalme

J’avais croisé brièvement Joanie il y a quelques années, je me rappelle de sa chevelure couleur platine et de son enthousiasme de jeune collectionneur. Elle avait acquise une de mes œuvres.

Nous nous sommes rencontrées une première fois à la fin de l’été 2015 autour d’un verre au centre-ville de Montréal et avons discuté de tout mais à peine du projet. ...
Benoit Aquin, Nathalie à l’orée des champs – for Nathalie Goyette et Philippe Lamarre

Photographie tirée d’un photo-roman intitulé Sans frontières. Le photo-roman offre de nouvelles possibilités en photographie que j’explore avec enthousiasme. Il permet entre autre d’investir la fiction avec la dimension théâtrale de la photographie. Ce qu’il y a d’intéressant dans cette discipline, c’est que même s’il existe un scénario la porte demeure grande ouverte pour l’improvisation…