Lyse Lemieux is a Canadian contemporary visual artist based in Vancouver. She has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1976. Her art practice focuses primarily on drawing, painting and installation work.
Lyse Lemieux was born in 1956 in Ottawa, Canada. She studied at the University of Ottawa (1973–75) and received a BFA from the University of British Columbia (1976-1978).[1] Lemieux was appointed and served for eight years (2002-2010) as a part-time member of the Canadian Artist and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal, a quasi-judicial tribunal in Ottawa, responsible for the interpretation and administration of the Status of the Artist Act (SAA).[2] She also worked on contract as a radio producer and television journalist in Vancouver for La Société Radio-Canada in Vancouver (1987-2013). She currently lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Lemieux was the winner of the 2017 VIVA Award.[3]
Lemieux's practice focuses on expanded drawing and drawing installation. Her materials vary, but have included textiles, ink on paper, and wool felt. Her content is mostly abstract, but she often employs ovoids. Robin Laurence has said that Lemieux uses these "lopsided ovals to suggest either human heads or bodies, part of an experimental drawing practice that dodges between abstraction and figuration. She has also claimed unexpected materials such as fabric, found clothing, even medical tape as drawing materials, confounding our understanding of medium and process."[4] Her work is known for a sensitive, lyrical line which Marina Roy details, "the viewer attempts to pinpoint what it is about a particular combination of line quality, ink wash and fabric collage that evokes such humour, absurdity and pathos."[5] Her abstractions fragment the subject by separating heads and torsos, Robin Laurence sees this as a moment "created out of disjointed parts are reminiscent of the surrealist practice of 'Exquisite Corpse'."[6] Her work has been curated alongside Vikky Alexander, Nadia Myre, Beth Stuart, Meryl McMaster, Shary Boyle, Carol Wainio and Luanne Martineau in Aujourd'hui Encore at Trépanier Baer in Calgary, and more recently curated by Daina Augaitis and Jesse McKee for the Vancouver Art Gallery show Vancouver Special: Ambivalent Pleasures which contextualized emerging artists like Jeneen Frei Njootli, and Krista Belle Stewart with established artists like Mina Totino, Gary Neil Kennedy, and Elizabeth McIntosh.[7]
2021: Trespassers/Intrus (solo), Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby[8]
2021: Holding a line in your hand, Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops[9]
2020: Enceinte (solo), Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver[10]
2020: No Fixed Abode (solo), Simon Fraser University, Burnaby[11]
2019: Painted Drawings (solo), Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver[12]
2019: Some Kind of Behaviour (solo), Terminal Creek Contemporary, Bowen Island[13]
2018: Full Frontal (solo), Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver[14]
2018: 13 Ways to Summon Ghosts Gordon Smith Gallery, North Vancouver[15]
2016-17: Vancouver Special: Ambivalent Pleasures, Vancouver Art Gallery[16]
2016-17: Kitchen Midden, Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver[17]
2016: A Girl's Gotta Do What a Girl's Gotta Do, (solo) Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond[18]
2015: Out of Line, Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario[19]
2015: Black is the Size of My New Dress (solo), Republic Gallery, Vancouver[20]
2015: In-Between-In-Between (with Meryl McMaster), Katzman Contemporary, Toronto
2014: Shaped Drawings, Something Wrong About the Mouth (solo), Republic Gallery, Vancouver[21]
2014: Beside Yourself, AHVA Gallery, Audain Art Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver[22]