Jean-Pierre Séguin

For several years, Jean-Pierre Séguin has explored the various systems of representation of portraiture. The relationship between the photographic portrait and the pictorial portrait form is, according to him, the foundation of his artistic research, in particular, with respect to the perception of the image, which varies depending on the use of different techniques and the way in which the viewer moves around the work. Whether through digital printing, wood engraving, drawing, and painting or by the accumulation of glass beads and other objects that create the pixilated image or even, as in his most recent works, cut outs of solid material, each portrait is like a puzzle that he recreates by playing with the multiple elements thereby allowing the viewer to identify the character represented.

This collection of portraits, which began in the seventies, is made up of characters from the art world whom he has met and photographed, but also public figures whose images were borrowed from the media. Represented by OK Harris, Jean-Pierre Séguin has shown his work for the past five years primarily in New York. The exhibition at the Galerie Graff is an opportunity to discover a selection of portraits of artists that Séguin began in 2000. These depictions of artists cohabit together in Séguin’s world regardless of hierarchy or reputation.
The portraits of Michael Snow, Gherard Richter, Raymond Lavoie, Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois, Marina Abramovic, Guido Molinari, Chuck Close, Raymonde April, Damien Hirst and Kara Walker take a variety of forms ranging from intimate paintings, the accumulation of beads to large format works on paper that reveal a woodcut or a clever tangle of cotton thread. Made of hand-turned and painted wood, the latest series includes profiles of artists who reveal themselves by their absence.

Born in 1951, Jean-Pierre Séguin holds a Master Degree in visual arts from UQAM. In 1979, he has received the Saidye Bronfman Quebec Bienale Prize and in 1989 the Biennale du dessin, de l’estampe et du papier du Québec Prize. Séguin has exhibited a lot in Quebec, Canada as well as in United States and Japan. His works are part of many public, corporate and private collections in Canada and abroad. Jean-Pierre Séguin lives and works in Montreal.

Artist’s website

Further reading:

• « Les toiles conceptuelles du Montréalais Jean-Pierre Seguin sont déroutantes à découvrir », article by Louis-Philippe Pilon for Nightlife
• Jean-Pierre Séguin Creates Abstract Work with a Concrete Context, interview with Alison Kjeldgaard
• « Jean-Pierre Seguin : le portrait proto-numérique », article by Michaël Lachance for ETC
• « Jean-Pierre Seguin : Portraits-émergents sur détails-objets », article by Michaël Lachance for Protée