This week’s spotlight shines on Edmund Alleyn, whose piece Vanitas from 1993 features as part of the exhibition Nocturnes at Galerie Roger Bellemare. Alleyn is a Montreal icon, and his life and prolific career were the subject of the recent documentary L’atelier de mon père (My Father’s Studio), produced by his daughter Jennifer Alleyn. It is worth checking out Edmund Alleyn’s official website at www.edmundalleyn.com.
From the Edmund Alleyn website:
Born in Quebec City, Edmund Alleyn attended the École des beaux-arts in Quebec City and studied with the painter Jean-Paul Lemieux.
Remarkably versatile, Edmund Alleyn was an innovator whose stylistically diverse paintings, drawings and multimedia installations are all critically regarded as superb examples of their genre. An intellectual painter, Mr. Alleyn’s oeuvre resonates with the tensions that exist between the figurative and non-figurative, sometimes playfully marrying Pop and Formalist art together. In his later work, he invoked an elegiac, cinematic quality, inviting viewers to locate their place within his work.
By the age 24, the mercurial artist won the Grand Prix aux Concours artistiques de la province de Québec and a grant from the Royal Society enabling him to move to France in 1955. He won a bronze medal at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1959 and the following year he represented Canada at the Venice Biennial. His art is collected by the most prestigious institutions in the contemporary art scene as well as by private collectors in North America and Europe.
It is almost impossible to define Alleyn’s paintings as belonging to or following any one style or school of art. A versatile artist, who crossed stylistic borders in search of new ways of expressing himself, Alleyn produced a rich collection of works. Each shows that he never hesitated to move from one medium to another. Various series mark specific periods in his life that also illustrate the focus of his research. His overall production, including paintings and other works of art, are telling examples of the depth and scope of his talent.
Galerie Roger Bellemare, space 502
Group exhibition
Nocturnes
June 11 – July 16, 2011
www.rogerbellemare.com
