Élise Lafontaine (B. 1984, Tiohtiake/Montreal, Canada) holds a master’s degree in visual and media arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal (2020) and a BFA from Concordia University (2015). She has participated in artist residencies at the Fondation Christoph Merian / CALQ and Malévoz Quartier culturel (Switzerland), at the Vermont Studio Center (United States), and at Leipzig International Art Programme (Germany).
Lafontaine pictorial approach is rooted in extensive immersive research where she has infiltrated the prehistoric caves of the Aegean Pyrenees (France), prison and psychiatric environments (Switzerland), the Carmelite monastery in Montreal (Canada) and more recently, the Goetheanum which houses Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophical society (Switzerland). From these photographic documentations, she moves on to painting, where each series is created according to the particularities of the host site: light, volume, iconography, body sensation and lived experience inform the paintings.
Solo exhibitions include, Pangée, Montréal, (2024); Jack Barrett gallery, NYC (2024); Dornach Pillars, curator: Marie DuPasquier, Centre CLARK, Montréal (2023); Make a circle sound like a new sun, Sothu, Zürich (2022), Peau(x) de pièces, Pangée, Montréal (2022); Sa robe est une voûte, Nicolas Robert Gallery, Montréal (2019), Portraits of windows, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa (2017)
Group exhibitions include, 2024 Dallas Art fair, Jack Barrett gallery, Dallas (2024); I paint outside the lines, Thom Oosterhof & Candid House, London (2023); Trevor Baird, Catherine Desroches, Manal Kara, Fatine-Violette Sabiri, Curtis Talwst Santiago with Pangée Art Toronto, Canada (2023); Cruel to be kind, Curator: Anaïs Castro & Alice Ricciardi, Livart, Montréal, (2023); ear to the ceiling, eye to the sky (with Shannon Bool, Marlon Kroll and Kristine Moran) Daniel Faria gallery, Toronto (2023); Alicia Adamerovich & Élise Lafontaine with Pangée, NADA NYC, New York, NY (2022); Nicholas Bierk, Ayla Dmyterko,, Ben Gould, Élise Lafontaine and Darby Milbrath with Pangée Art toronto, Canada (2022); Held open, curator: Marie-Charlotte Carrier, Art Toronto (2022); Maison modèle III : House of heartbreak, curators : Frances Adair Mckenzie et Nadège Grebmeier Forget, CLARK, Montréal (2021); Feminine notion, curator : Rad Hourani, Rad Hourani Foundation, Montréal (2021); Salon des refusés, curator : Benjamin Klein, McBride contemporain, Montréal (2020); Cavernes, curator : Katerina Bradshaw, McBride contemporain, Montréal (2019); Chat chat joli chat, curator : Nicolas Ranelluci, Maison de la culture Plateau Mont-Royal, Montréal (2018); Chromatic Festival, Usine C, Montréal (2018)
Highlights and Collections:
Loto-Québec, RBC, privates collections in Turkey, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Japan, Germany