A studio visit with Élise Lafontaine

The artist has upcoming exhibitions at Pangée and Jack Barrett

May 02, 2024

Whenever I post a photo of Élise Lafontaine’s pigmented paintings, I get at least three texts from friends demanding to see more of her work and asking if it’s available. The response makes sense. The paintings achieve a “rightness” that is immediate and satisfying.

Lombrives, a solo exhibition of Élise’s paintings, opens May 11th at Pangée in Montreal. The exhibition title is the name of a cave in France where Élise spent a night—an experience that profoundly impacted her work. Understood in the context of the cave, the paintings become representational abstractions. They depict the feeling of being encompassed, moving towards an opening, and our relationship to the forms and pigments surrounding us.

Élise has an upcoming exhibition at Jack Barrett in New York City in September. I’m making a point of flying to New York to see it!! She also recently exhibited pieces with the gallery at the Dallas Art Fair.

Last year, I was honoured to write an exhibition text for Élise Lafontaine and Véronique Chagnon Côté’s two-person show at Forest City Gallery. Here’s an excerpt:

The burst of colours and shapes in Lafontaine’s work are like the fleeting remnants of light when you close your eyes, fireworks etched onto the back of your eyelids. Lafontaine, through rigorous research and on-site study, captures the invisible side of architecture: the feeling of being within an enclosed space. Starting at the physical site of the canvas, Lafontaine paints the sensation of being enveloped. The immersion is amplified by the size of the canvas, which necessitates a turn of the head to fully see the composition.

Essay here