Eric Lamontagne
Contempler le vide
2024

Name: Contempler le vide
Brand: Eric Lamontagne
Price: 900 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

When creating his artworks, Éric Lamontagne begins by painting a landscape scene, often with a body of water or cliffs. He then carefully cuts, folds, rips, and slashes the canvas both to produce elements that protrude out from the painted scene and to create holes and gaps in it. Lamontagne challenges the painting process by experimenting with the materiality of the canvas as well as the application of paint with tactful techniques. In some paintings, certain segments of the canvases are left raw or only glazed, whereas in others, there are sections where the paint appears pixelated or melted. His practice confuses what we know about painting, while it also confuses our perception of the natural world. Lamontagne’s interventions are almost aways directly and inherently connected to human presence. He strategically indexes how humans impose themselves into the environment by including everyday objects, such as the three-dimensional tire or suitcase cut-outs in se transporter ailleurs. The artist, however, also conveys this commentary through more abstract ideas, such as puncturing a canvas of a serene landscape with a massive hole, as seen in le trou. In his paintings, these obtrusions and removals are simultaneously distinct, or separate, from the landscape, while at the same time, they are integral and indivisible components. In cage aux îles, the artist methodically cuts out neat little squares from an otherwise picturesque seascape of a quaint fishing town. He then neatly rolls the canvas tightly into itself and paints them as cigarette butts. Segments of canvas that are necessary to complete the scene’s vista are removed, insinuating both absence and destruction. The trompe-l’oeil cigarettes – some lit, others bent, and others only half smoked – litter not just the ground, but the entirety of the scene. Here, the artist interjects into the landscape in a similar destructive manner that we as humans have intervened into the natural world. Several artworks in this exhibition showcase what Lamontagne has referred to as a “marvellous dump,” that is, the compilation of various objects organized in a surreal and playful way. The “marvellous” encompasses the sense of whimsy and play achieved by rendering these objects in a different scale than their landscape or by allowing them to interact in unrealistic ways. While at the same time, the concept of “dump” calls directly to a conscious consideration of the damaging impact we have on our environment as we leave behind our traces. In its essence, Lamontagne’s works capture feelings of unknowing, or even uneasiness, that we may have towards the environment and our place within it.

Creator:

Eric Lamontagne (1966, Canadian)

Creation Year:

2024

Dimensions:

Height: 7 in (17.78 cm)Width: 5 in (12.7 cm)

Medium:

Canvas,Acrylic

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

2010-

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Montreal, CA

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU47613768962

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Eric Lamontagne

Interaction with one of Lamontagne’s works is, simply put, a surreal experience. By using one of several points of entrance, viewers are permitted to experience multiple views of combinations of two and 3-dimensional aspects of his work that redefine the rules of space. Whether looking through peep-holes, or in experiencing the final effects of his mise-en-scène, Lamontagne’s work courts the viewer’s curiosity and imagination, inviting them to let go of traditional ways of seeing and to enter into a playful relationship of what is possible. The piecemeal nature of his mise-en scène with the steam locomotive engine, paired with the accompanying audio recalls time gone by. It remains unclear, however whether this is a memory work, or from a parallel, past, or future time. The space itself appears somewhat liquid in that the various elements are capable of pulling even further away from one another, increasing their dissolving aspect. The upper portions of the canvases succeed at further confusing our understanding of this space with their contradictory gravity work. The streaked nude canvas left exposed would have us believe that there is an upward force on the painted image, while the subjects of the images are reacting only to the usual gravitational pulls. To further confound an understanding of the space, it is not clear as to whether the painted images are in the process of dissolving or being created. Like in dreams or memories there is a sense of something being slightly amiss, or askance. Suspended just short of being fully realized or separated from a state of wholeness, the scene is both static and yet there is a heightened awareness of the potentially impending series of motions that would play out. Other glimpses into parallel and alien scenarios are found throughout the exhibit, offering impossible views and playfully prodding the mind to accept or consider other possibilities. In keeping with past works, there is a focus on an interdisciplinary approach that merges and creates new realities as well as allows for a wide range of perspectives- while maintaining a playfulness. The everyday nature of the visual subject is inclusive, cemeteries, studios, countryside, fireplaces, a sunset, their simplicity is instrumental in allowing viewers to focus of the mechanics of navigating and understanding how the artworks inhabit their space, and the relationships that exist between the viewer and any of the given works.