Martin désilets
Trained as a painter, Martin Désilets grounds his thinking in the tensions between photography and painting. His experimental practice plays with accumulation, repetition, and the blurring of images until they disappear. In 2017, he began the project Dark Matter, systematically photographing every artwork exhibited in various museums. His ambition: to gather and superimpose, within a single digital file, the entirety of modern and contemporary artworks, ultimately achieving an absolute black. Through this lifelong project, the artist questions how traces of past works can merge to generate new pictorial forms. In response to the visual saturation of our time, Désilets proposes compositions that are both dense and evanescent, inviting a slowing down of the gaze. To save everything and to destroy everything—this is one of the great paradoxes lying at the heart of this artistic endeavor, a powerful metaphor for the human condition, and for that of the artist.
Martin Désilets is a Canadian artist based in Montreal. Since the inception of Dark Matter, museums have become his studio, and their contents his material. He has completed numerous artist residencies in New York, Paris, Basel, London, Berlin, and elsewhere. His work has been presented in several exhibitions, notably in Paris (Galerie Bigaignon, Offscreen Paris, unRepresented, Geste Paris), Berlin (Künstlerhaus Bethanien), Lausanne (Photo Elysée), Basel (Kunsthaus Baselland), and Montreal (Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Occurrence, B-312, Circa, Optica, among others). His works are held in various private and public collections, including the permanent collection of Photo Elysée, Musée cantonal pour la photographie; the Coleção Ivani e Jorge Yunes; the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec; and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. In 2025, a major monograph on his work was published by the Berlin-based publisher Distanz, featuring essays by historians Pauline Martin, Catherine Nichols, and Michel Poivert.
SELECTED ARTWORKS
PUBLICATIONS
SOLO SHOWS
2026 “Matière Noire”, Bigaignon, Paris
2025 “Offscreen”, Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpetrière, Paris, France
2024 unRepresented by a ppr oc he, Le Molière, Paris, France
2023 “All the Disasters of War”, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
2022 “L’index”, Galerie B-312, Montréal, Canada
2021 “Les tableaux réunis”, Museum of Art of Joliette, Canada
2021 Exhibition Center of Le Vieux Presbytère, Saint-Bruno de Montarville, Canada
2021 Library George-Dor, Longueuil, Canada
2019 “Matière noire / L’index”, Occurrence, Montréal, Canada
2018 “Matière noire, État 1”, Galerie Lilian Rodriguez, Montréal, Canada
2017 “Énigmes de l’ombre et de la lumière”, Plein sud, Longueuil, Canada
2015 “From Dusk Till Dawn”, The Institut für Alles Mögliche, Berlin, Germany
2015 “Martin Désilets”, Agora de la danse de Montréal, Canada
2014 “Isoler – rassembler – dissoudre”, Langage Plus, Alma, Canada
2012 “Entre des fragments de choses, d’espace et de temps”, House of Arts, Laval, Canada
2010 “Les élégies”, Complexe Ex-Centris/2M2, Montréal, Canada
2007 “Le grand voyage”, Plein sud, current Art Exhibition Centre in Longueuil, Canada
2006 “Les agglomérations”, Gallery B-312, Montréal, Canada
2005 “Les agglomérations”, Exhibition center of La Sarre, La Sarre, Canada
2004 “Postcards and Small Formats”, Gallery 44, Toronto, Canada
2003 “Cartes postales et petits formats”, Optica, Montréal, Canada
2002 “Les agglomérations (extraits – première partie)”, Area SD, Beyrouth, Lebanon
2002 “Les leçons de (la) peinture”,Laval University Visual Arts Gallery, Canada
2001 “Les dictons et proverbes des îlets”, Occurrence, Montréal, Canada
2000 “ Les leçons de (la) peinture et oeuvres récentes”, Mont-Laurier Exhibition Centre, Canada
1999 “Les leçons de (la) peinture”, Circa Exhibition Centre, Montreal, Canada
GROUP SHOWS
2024 “What if it was all just a mirage?”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2023 “Flou, une histoire photographique”, Photo Élysée, Cantonal Museum of Photography , France
2021 “Slowly Arriving, Kunsthaus Baselland”, Basel, Suisse
2021 “Photographic Materiality / La matérialité photographique”, Ottawa School of Art, Orleans, Canada
2020 “Matérialité photographique”, La Castiglione, Montréal, Canada
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2019 “The Process of Calculating One’s Position”, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, USA
2019 “Fichiers temporaires”, Centre Sagamie, Alma, Canada
2018 “Binary/Non-Binary”, Geste Paris, Paris, France
2018 “Vendu/Sold 10 Years”, Esse, Montréal, Canada
2017 “Transmission”, Plein sud, Longueuil, Canada
2016 Les Grands espaces, Regart, Lévis, Canada
2016 “Vendu/Sold”, encan Esse, Montréal, Canada
2012 Art Souterrain, Montréal, Canada
2011 “Dessin à Dessein”, Galerie Lilian Rodriguez, Montréal, Canada
2010 Exposition des professeurs du département d’arts plastiques, Espace culturel – bibliothèque du Cégep St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Canada
2007 “En construction”, Galerie Stewart Hall, Pointe-Claire, Canada
2006 “Territoires urbains”, Oakville Galeries, Oakville, Canada
2005 “Territoires urbains”, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Canada
2005 “Le polyptique et la série”, Galerie du Cégep du Vieux-Montréal, Canada
2003 “Lieux anthropiques”, Centro Cultural Casa Vallarta, organisé par Vox, centre de diffusion de la photographie, Mexique
2003 "La collection Prêt d’œuvres d’art. Acquisitions 2003”, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Canada
2002 “L’histoire de l’art comme matériau”, salle Augustin-Chenier, Ville-Marie, Canada
2002 “Artistes en création – Saïda and Tripoli”, Palais de L’UNESCO, Beirut, Liban
2001 “Expression plurielle en Francophonie”, exposition à Tripoli, Beyrouth et Saïda, Liban
2001 “Representing Canada-Quebec (painting), IVes Jeux de la Francophonie, Hull – Ottawa”, Musée des beaux-arts du Canada
2000 Pass-Art, Centre d’exposition de Rouyn-Noranda, Rouyn-Noranda, Canada
2000 “Dérive parodique”, Maison de la culture Frontenac, Montréal, Canada
DISTINCTIONS
2025 Longueuil Arts Council, Creation Grant
2024 Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), Publication and Critical Documentation
2024 Longueuil Arts Council, Promotion and Dissemination Grant
2023 Canada Council for the Arts, Research and Creation
2023 Longueuil Arts Council, Creation Grant
2022 Desjardins Recognition Award, Arts Council of Longueuil
2022 Quebec Arts and Letters Council, Acquisition and Marketing
2021 Longueuil Arts Council, 10th Anniversary Grant
2019-2021 Quebec Arts and Letters Council / Agglomeration of Longueuil, Creation, Production, Outreach
2019 Quebec Arts and Letters Council, Artistic Residency between Quebec and the State of New York
2019 Longueuil Arts Council, Creation Grant
2018 Canada Council for the Arts, Research and Creation
2017 Quebec Arts and Letters Council, Research and Creation
2017 Longueuil Arts Council, Creation Grant
2016 Quebec Arts and Letters Council, Research, Creation, and Travel
2015 Longueuil Arts Council, Creation Grant and Travel Grant
2015 Quebec Arts and Letters Council, Travel
2015 SODEC, Assistance Program for Visual Arts Artists
2014 Longueuil Arts Council, Creation Grant
2012 Quebec Arts and Letters Council, Research and Creation
2008 Quebec Arts and Letters Council, Research and Creation (A)
2006 Plein Sud Grant
2002 Quebec Arts and Letters Council, Travel, Section 3 (B)
2002 Quebec Arts and Letters Council, Research and Creation (B)
2001 Ministry of Culture and Communications of Quebec, Canada
2001 Quebec Arts and Letters Council, Research and Creation (B)
RESIDENCIES
2025 Residency at the Cité internationale des arts de Paris / TRAME Program, Paris
2023 Residency at the Québec Studio in Berlin / Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
2022 Residency at the Québec Studio in London / ACME Studios
2022 Residency at Centre Sagamie (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020), Alma
2022 Residency in Europe and Basel, Switzerland, 10th Anniversary Grant, Conseil des arts de Longueuil
2021 Residency at Atelier Mondial / Christoph Merian Foundation, Basel
2020 Residency at the Musée d’art de Joliette (Quebec)
2019 Residency at the NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, New York
2017 Residency at Centre Les Récollets, Paris, France/Quebec
2016 Residency at Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, AIR/The Rooms
2015 “Photographic Spaces” Residency, VU Photo, Quebec
2015 Artist Residency at the Institut für Alles Mögliche, Berlin
COLLECTIONS
Photo Élysée, Cantonal Museum for Photography, France
Museum of Contemporary Art of Montreal, Canada
Permanent Collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, Canada
Pratt & Whitney, Canada
Intergovernmental Agency of La Francophonie, France
University of Montreal, Canada
City of Laval, Canada
City of Longueuil, Canada
Coleção Ivani e Jorge Yunes, Brasil