Chloé Larivière
Montréal, CanadaBiography
Having completed a technical program at Cégep du Vieux Montréal in 2014, I pursued my studies in Visual and Media Arts at UQÀM, where I obtained my Bachelor’s in June of 2017. In the past few years, I have exhibited work at Galerie de l’UQAM and Le Livart. I was also awarded the jury’s first place award and public’s coup de cœur award for the 2017 edition of Vocation en Art!, organized by the CJE of Marguerite-d’Youville.
About the artwork
My artistic practice explores relationships with the other, attachment and self-representation, from a sociological angle. Through my pictorial and photographic works, I strive to share my rapport with intimacy. My explorations lead me to identify exchanges between the individuals in my entourage. It’s that moment, that contact with the other, which is at the heart of my practice. Also, my readings and writing reflect my need to treat social connection as a way of understanding the other.
Carried out in a conceptual and documentary fashion, my photographic research positions the individual as a creation medium – raw material for my work – and also as a subject for observation. The photos I create enable me to embark on painting directions that wouldn’t otherwise exist. Through photography, I develop the daily and spontaneous staging that is ultimately found in my paintings. My tormented paintings prompt introspection through self-representation, then bombard the viewer – a common theme in all of my creations. For example, dsl pour le bordel (2017-2018) is a work involving multiple self-representation, making reference to the construction of my own death. Moreover, the piece Martyre (2017) presents a self-portrait with shifty eyes. Some works, like J’ai fait ça pour te plaire (2017), referring to a selfie sent to a loved one, illustrate daily life, while others echo written works. For instance, the philosophical novel Fragments d’un discours amoureux by Roland Barthes inspired me to begin working on Folle (2017), a painting created on three plastic surfaces. Working at once with the transparency and thickening of the pictorial matter, my gestures seemed contradictory – a tension which further accentuates that exerted on my subjects.
Inspired by the piece Prenez soin de vous (2007) by artist, Sophie Calle, I strive to mourn some unfortunate exchanges, but also to illustrate tensions and the effects they have. In my treatment of intimacy, I also see connections with Nan Goldin’s photographic work, Francis Bacon’s disfigured paintings, and Egon Schiele’s and his elder, Gustav Klimt’s, representations of the body.
Artworks by the artist
Events
