Nicolas Grenier

Dumbfounded Prophets

March 31 - May 5, 2018

Nicolas Grenier
We Hung Out Where Others Left Their Words, Unspoken And Forgotten, 2018
Oil on canvas
84.5 x 104.5 in.

Nicolas Grenier
Perspectives, 2018
Oil and acrylic on canvas and wood
63 x 63 x 2.5 in.

Nicolas Grenier
Harm / Get Harmed / Give Up, 2018
Oil and acrylic on canvas
80 x 60 in.

Nicolas Grenier
Monuments, 2016-2018
Oil and acrylic on canvas
60 x 75 in.

Nicolas Grenier
The Growth, 2018
Oil and acrylic on canvas
40 x 50 in.

Nicolas Grenier
Selected Absolutes (III), 2016-2018
Oil and acrylic on linen
40 x 50 in.

Nicolas Grenier
Mutual Exposure (II), 2018
Oil and acrylic on wood panel
40 x 30 in.

Nicolas Grenier
Remembrance Pit (Memorial For Political Crimes), 2016-2018
Oil on wood panel
16 x 22 in.

Nicolas Grenier
More or Less Happy Camping, 2018
Oil and acrylic on wood panel
14 x 11 in.

Nicolas Grenier
Vertically Integrated Socialism, 2015
Single channel video
43:00 min.

Installation View of Nicolas Grenier: Dumfounded Prophets

Press Release

Over the last eight years Nicolas Grenier's practice has evolved into an ecosystem that includes paintings, architectural installations, lecture-performances, and experimental economic models. In Dumbfounded Prophets, Grenier continues his ongoing exploration into the aesthetics of abstraction in relation to systems of power and its effects on the individual. Informed by his multidisciplinary approach, Grenier has integrated a meticulous crafting of color and pictorial space with a deft understanding of diagrammatic language sourced from architecture and design, management strategies, and theory. His new paintings relay concepts, experiences, and emotional states—in some instances presented within cryptic anecdotes and in combination with various strategies of organizing space—in order to communicate the complexities of mediated human experience. Grenier’s work also addresses the philosophical and moral dimensions

inherent within political thought and action. He identifies moments when the attempts to control meaning through form expose ideological idiosyncrasies, revealing the honesty, absurdity, beauty, and pitfalls of rationalization and dogmatism. This idea is beautifully illustrated in a series of texts that circumscribe the margins of the painting Perspectives (2018) in which an unidentified narrator implores:

DON'T GET SO ANGRY AT THEM,
THEY'RE JUST CAUGHT UP IN A PERSPECTIVE THAT'S SO DIFFERENT FROM YOURS,
THEY DON'T SEE THE HARM THAT THEY'RE DOING.

In Dumbfounded Prophets, Grenier situates art as a tool through which to consider the discrepancies between theory and practice.

Press

ARTNEWS

NICOLAS GRENIER SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 EDITION OF THE SOBEY ART AWARD June 12, 2019

The Sobey Art Foundation and National Gallery of Canada have named the five finalists for the 2019 Sobey Art Award, which is presented annually to a Canada-based artist age 40 or younger. The finalists represent Canada’s five geographic regions, with Nicolas Grenier representing Québec. An exhibition of works by the short-listed artists will open at the Art Gallery of Alberta on October 5, and the 2019 Sobey Art Award winner—to be revealed on November 15—will receive 100,000 Canadian dollars ($75,300).

View ARTnews.com

ARTILLERY MAGAZINE

THE FATAL OPTIMISM OF THE BAR GRAPH: NICHOLAS GRENIER April 3, 2018

Even before pie charts and bar graphs, before we’re plotting curves and breaking down conic sections in algebra and analytic geometry, we become very accustomed to the graphic visual representation of every kind of trend, concept, and systematized data or information. It almost goes hand in hand with the way we structure ideas, systems, and organizations.The visual concepts become part and parcel of the systems and ideas they express. They become integral to the way we extrapolate, track progress, draw conclusions, predict outcomes.

View ArtilleryMag.com