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SAINT-LAURENT Martin
: Print biography
The main goal of my work is to mark or signal the presence of an object in a given place (gallery or in situ) through the use of specific aesthetic processes that serve to create a cognitive impact.
Each painting is like a letter that is sent to a correspondent. It is writing that is personal and transposed onto an imposing volume - as it were a type of toy for adults. Rigidity, repetition, abstraction, full frontal view, volumetrics, scale, as well as the phenomenology and experience of space are concepts of the perceptions left by the object in a given environment. Works, in which the very physical reality of a frontal view, that appear to be heavy and burdensome for mural support, have the freedom of a writing, whose syntax is far from perfect. The text is an imitation of the spontaneity of the child who is confronted by a gestalt constructed by an adult.
(Martin Saint-Laurent)
The artist’s works evolve along several axes, notably memory – stories and souvenirs, fiction as well as the line between the utilitarian function and the symbolic function. The axes often intersect, but not necessarily. Martin St. Laurent constructs his works on wood, using rich yet sober colours, which often betray traces (scratches, finger prints) which enhance the perception of the paradox associated with the contrast between the utilitarian and the symbolic functions of his art. In an adroit effort to hide the tracks, he uses literary legends that accompany the panels. The traces left by the artist create the motif of repetition: they are like a swarm of fireflies or the richness of good cloth. Many various combinations may be imagined.
Martin Saint-Laurent earned a Degree in Visual Arts from the University of Quebec in Montreal in 1998, a degree in Art History in 1995 and another degree in Paris and Brussels in 1994. He won the Hubert Rousseau Award ( UQÀM Gallery) in 1998 as well as a scholarship for his work Printemps Plein Temps in 1998. His works were shown at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in 2002 and 2003 and at the Belgo Building in 1997. He created an in situ installation at the Berri-UQÀM Metro Station in 2000.
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