Artist Diane Landry, now in mid-career, lives and works in Quebec City. In 2001 she created Les Sédentaires clandestins, a sound and kinetic sculpture presented that year at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, which subsequently purchased the piece. This remarkably powerful sculpture, exhibited here for the second time in Quebec, is composed of twenty-four turntables on which miniature vehicles whirl round and round. The turning of the vehicles is accompanied by screeching sounds, light effects, projections and movements that bring the whole exhibition space alive. Although the approach is playful, Les Sédentaires clandestins can be seen as a critique of contemporary urban reality.

Opening on September 4, 2004 at 3:00 pm.
Presentation by Diane Landry on September 4, 2004 at 2:00 pm.

The exhibition Diane Landry. Les Sédentaires clandestins is a production of EXPRESSION, in collaboration with the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.

For over thirty years, the Montreal painter Christian Kiopini has been preoccupied with the formal and referential modalities of pictorial space. He combines geometric and organic forms with gestural marks and tonal variations, while simultaneously using perspectival effects to undermine the flatness of surfaces. The installation Projet S, deuxième version (2002-2003), being shown at EXPRESSION by Christian Kiopini for the first time, explores both pictorial issues and spatial mechanisms, thus establishing a continuity with his previous practice. Projet S, deuxième version consists of two large painted structures reminiscent of theatrical stage sets. Spectators are encouraged to step inside them, to walk around them, and to experience the realities and illusions generated by the ensemble.

The practice of artist François Mathieu, who has been working in the Quebec City region for some fifteen years, is primarily sculptural. He frequently combines his preferred material – wood – with other materials and objects, producing hybrid constructions whose iconography and discourse evoke the religious realm. The artist's aim is to adapt the functions and effects of religion to an era marked by scepticism and neglect of the ecclesiastical heritage. François Mathieu is presenting a selection of works at EXPRESSION. One, Les Vagues porteuses (2001), which in form resembles a church spire, recalls the machines designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Suspended from the ceiling, the ten-metre-long piece seems to float in the exhibition space.

Originally from Saint-Hyacinthe, Serge Lemonde now lives in Sainte-Julie. In 1985 EXPRESSION inaugurated its centre with an exhibition of his work. More recently, in 2002, the Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent in Rivière-du-Loup mounted Serge Lemond's first retrospective, consisting of paintings and collages executed between 1962 and 2001. In view of its significance, and of the geographical and historical links between the artist and the centre, it is entirely fitting that this retrospective be shown again, at EXPRESSION. The exhibition brings together about fifty works, presented by the curator Charles Bourget. The dominant aesthetic of Serge Lemond's work, initially related to pop art, has evolved towards hyperrealism. Exploring a variety of themes, his practice fuses sensuality and humour, reality and fiction.

Artist Paul Lacroix, who has been pursuing his career in Quebec City for over forty years, is best known for his sculptures, drawings and photographs. The exhibition being presented at EXPRESSION – and (at different dates) at the Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides, in Saint-Jérôme, and the Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke – consists of approximately forty graphic and photographic pieces. The works, assembled by curator Laurier Lacroix under the theme of the transformation of light, have been created using unusual techniques that reflect the artist's inventive approach. Through their subtle interplays of transparency, superimposition and inversion, these works possess the power to both charm and deceive the eye.

Catherine Sylvain is a young Montreal artist already making a name for herself with a practice that combines sculpture and performance. The colour white, articles of clothing and unexpected shifts of scale feature regularly in her works, which are the product of an ongoing meditation on the modern individual's relations with self, the environment and the rest of humanity. Identity, interpersonal relations and emotional substitution are the artist's favoured themes. In 2003, for instance, having observed that people take walks more often with their dog than with their spouse, she created Femme-chien, a large blow-up sculpture of a dog that accompanied her in public. The exhibition being presented by Catherine Sylvain at EXPRESSION consists of a piece executed especially for the occasion, together with a selection of sculptures, photographic works and images documenting her performances.