During a stay at the end of April at the Est-Nord-Est residence (Quebec), I had the opportunity to meditate on the paintings shown in the "Lombrives" exhibition. This opportunity facilitated the exploration of a particularly new medium for me: colored pencil drawing. I created sketches inspired by my experience of the Lombrives cave in Ariège (France), where the silhouettes evoke stalagmites, stalactites and the passage of sound through the body. Above all, these forms pay homage to the darkness of this historic site, which not only saw the birth of painting but also marked my return to it after a two-year hiatus. Located in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec, the ENE residence faces the St. Lawrence River. The horizon of this expanse of water naturally intertwined with my drawings. She unfurls her boundless space, standing regal and solemn on an inclined axis. Like a rhythm, an echo, this space embodies a reverberation between two concretions, a truth. Similarly, this room acts as a suspension point between the paintings presented in this exhibition and my forthcoming research, which will be shown next September at Jack Barrett Gallery (New York).

-Élise Lafontaine

Élise Lafontaine (Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Canada) holds a master’s degree in visual and media arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal (2020) and a BFA from Concordia University (2015). She has participated in artist residencies at the Fondation Christoph Merian / CALQ and Malévoz Quartier culturel (Switzerland), at the Vermont Studio Center (United States), and at the Leipzig International Art Programme (Germany). Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Sothu Zurich (Switzerland) and at Pangée and Galerie Nicolas Robert (Canada), and in group exhibitions (Centre CLARK, Fondation Rad Hourani, McBride Contemporain, Maison de la culture du PlateauMontRoyal, Usine C, Galerie Art Mûr, Leipzig Spinnerei Autumn Gallery Tour). In 2023, the Centre CLARK (Canada) published her first book Archives where she presented a solo exhibition with guest curator Marie DuPasquier (Zurich and Berlin). Élise Lafontaine is represented by Pangée (Montreal).

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