Martin désilets

I explore museums. I photograph the works, one at a time, and then make them disappear by superimposing them. I explore cities. I photograph places and monuments with a lens-less camera, a blind camera.I began my art practice as a painter, examining the legacy of modernity, particularly that of abstraction in painting. Although now using digital printing and photographic processes, the mutual emulation and sometimes conflictual relationship between photography and painting continues to nourish my reflections. My research, like that of other artists, contributes to an indetermination and possible expansion of the fields of photography and painting.

Martin Désilets holds an MFA from Université du Québec à Montréal. His work has been featured in many exhibitions. Venues include, in Paris, Galerie Bigaignon, Geste Paris; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, in Berlin; Photo Élysée, in Lausanne; Kunsthaus Baselland, in Basel; in Montreal, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Occurrence, B-312, Circa, and Optica; the Musée d’art de Joliette, in Joliette; Plein sud, in Longueuil; the Maison des arts, in Laval; G44 Gallery, in Toronto; Oakville Galleries, in Oakville; The Nars Foundation, in New York; The Institut für Alles Mögliche, in Berlin; and Espace SD, in Beirut. Some residencies were of particular importance for the artist: In Berlin in 2023, in London in 2022, in Basel and at Musée d’art de Joliette (Quebec) in 2021, in New York in 2019, in Paris in 2017, in Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland) in 2016 (with The Room’s, St-John’s, N.L.), in Berlin in 2015. Many of his works can be found in various public and private collections, such as the collection of Photo Élysée, Musée cantonal pour la photographie, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and the collection of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

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