Véronique La Perrière M. - Les soirées fantastiques

Galerie D’Este is proud to present Les soirées fantastiques, a solo exhibition by Véronique La Perrière M. This new series began life during an artist’s residency in Paris and sees La Perrière exploring the boundaries between the fantastic and the illusory, the perceived real and the world of dreams. The works offer us entry into a cohesive environment built of charcoal drawings, paper objects and cuttings, presenting dreamlike figures and narratives. This study of the limits of reality and the limits of perception emerges out of the artist’s research into ancient texts on magic and illusion. The series draws on the visual language of the nineteenth-century Parisian Phantasmagorias, immensely popular magic shows that brought together shadow puppetry, conjuring tricks, immersive sound effects and elements of horror. Continuing in this theme, the artist tests the structure of the visible and of perceptions – of the self and of the other – in the relationship between the individual, technology, and nature as well as in the experience of magic. Equipped with masks and camouflage, figures seem to appear and disappear, their bodies fading to nothing. Between psychological disguises and ethereal apparitions, these images build into narratives of representation, of concealment, of reflections, glamour and shadow. The enigmatic works of Les soirées fantastiques are not quite what they seem.

Véronique La Perrière M. lives and works in Montreal, Canada. Her art practice is choreographed around questions that relate to memory and trace, perception and identity, the invisible and the phantasmagorical. She holds an MFA from Université du Québec à Montréal and an interdisciplinary PhD from Concordia University (PhD in Humanities - Fine Arts). Her work has been presented across Canada and abroad – in the United States, Australia, Luxembourg, Sweden and Finland. She has completed residencies with, among others, The Canada Council for the Arts (Paris, 2014), the OMI International Arts Center (NY, 2013), the Brucebo Foundation (Sweden, 2012) and the Pépinières européennes pour jeunes artistes (Finland, 2006). Recipient of the Plein Sud art prize in 2009, her artwork is included in various private and public collections such as Collection du Prêt d'œuvres d'art du Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Musée de la civilisation and Cirque du Soleil. She is an active member of the artistic collective La société des archives affectives.