Although François Simard’s works vary considerably from one series to the next, they are always developed in the same way. The process begins with an initiating principle known as the “probability system”. Acting as a starting constraint, this imposed restriction guides the pictorial interventions in the realization of a given painting. This may be a landscape, a portrait, an abstract grid, a hard edge plasticien, etc. The result of this constraint is a production sequence that limits and frames creative possibilities.
At one point in the process, the gestures are superimposed, drifting further and further away from their intended purpose as dictated by the starting point, and then, quite spontaneously, begin to float between the space represented and that of the surface. At other times, the gestures are absent, leaving only the grid in a well-defined chromatic sequence.
François Simard was born in 1980 in Urbana, Illinois, and has lived most of his life in Quebec City, where he completed a Master’s degree in Visual Arts at Université Laval in 2005. His paintings have been shown in many Quebec galleries and artist-run centers, including Œil de Poisson, Clark, B-312, Critérium, Laroche/Joncas and Lilian Rodriguez.
His work can be found in the following collections:
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (CPOA)
Desjardins Collection
Méduse Collection
As well as several private collections
