About my work
Through my research and work, I explore themes of social order transformation, paradigm shift and power dynamics. My works mainly take the form of paintings and drawings, but also installations, performances and participatory projects. I try to create works that give concrete, tangible form to speculative visions that often emerge instinctively after long periods of research. I articulate these visions with as rigorous a methodological specificity as possible, blending a systemic, analytical dimension with an atmospheric, enveloping visual language.
My works often combine structural elements, such as diagrams, texts, architectural models or geometric abstractions, with affective elements, such as gradients, colored light, a gentle shift from one thing to another. I try to create works that propose contemplative experiences. I'm interested in the possibility of slowing down time, of offering a multidimensional space where complex subjects - ideological polarization, the conception of a post-capitalist economy, the ethics of human-IA relations - can unfold with the softness of a perceptual experience.
Context
Like
many, I strongly believe that the times we live in, dominated by an exploitative, growth-based and profit-oriented economic paradigm, call for an existential reassessment of
where humanity as a whole is going.
This feels at once urgent, abstract and
impossible. Most of the concrete things we can do — voting, writing letters and petitions, changing our consumption habits, etc. — seem
irrelevant in the face of the structural nature of the problem.
Well, organizing helps. Protests are necessary. But even language seems too indebted to economics to adequately formulate the questions we must
address. If we want to reconsider the very idea of how things are organized on
the most primary level, then what building blocks can we use that are not already the design
of the existing organization? What are the poetics of
change when it comes to structures and systems?
I try to make works that translate at least some of these questions into something tangible. About half of my works are paintings and drawings, which address these issues through representation or visual language. The other half of my practice takes the form of “active” projects designed to interfere with the larger ideological, economic, or
technological dimensions in which we live. These projects usually take the form of active mechanisms, such as economic systems (Vertically
Integrated Socialism, 2015; The Time of the Work, 2016), focus groups
(Built-In, 2019), surveys and data visualization (pluralism.xyz, 2019-2022), or an interactive performance with an embodied chatbot (Les voix, 2023).
Bio
Nicolas Grenier holds a BFA from Concordia University, an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, and attended residencies at ZK/U Center for Arts and Urbanistics (Berlin), the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (ME), the Saas-Fee Summer institute of Art (Berlin), Fundación Botín (Santander) and the Banff Center. His work has been exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Arts the Power Plant (Toronto), the Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton), the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Gagosian Gallery (Athens), Denny Dimin Gallery (Hong Kong), the Bruges Triennial of Art and Architecture (Belgium), Commonwealth & Council (Los Angeles) and Union Gallery (London). His work is collected by the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Caisse de Dépôt du Québec, the National Bank of Canada, and others. Grenier was shortlisted for the 2019 Sobey Art Award and won the Prix Pierre-Ayot from the City of Montreal in 2016. He is represented by the Bradley Ertaskiran and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles galleries, and he is currently Artist in Residence at Concordia University.
CV
[Open CV]
Books
Nicolas Grenier / Structures(Monograph)
FR + ENG
2018
Available at the Bradley Ertaskiran & Luis De Jesus Los Angeles galleries
LES VOIX
Une étude pratique d’anthropomorphisme:
Être le corps et la voix de ChatGPT (Journal des Interprètes)
FR + ENG
Anteism Books
Printemps 2024
[Details + Order here]
Contact
Galerie Bradley Ertaskiran
www.bradleyertaskiran.com
info@bradleyertaskiran.com
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
www.luisdejesus.com
gallery@luisdejesus.com
Nicolas Grenier
grenier.nicolas@gmail.com
[Instagram]