OPENING
Thursday 12 March from 5 pm to 7:30 pm
Artists in attendance
Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporary is pleased to present "Réunion extraordinaire [Exceptional meeting]" a group exhibition initiated by artist Jérôme Fortin.
"Here is a group of accomplished artists whose practices are diverse. Committed to singular artistic approaches, they shine brilliantly in museums, private galleries, artist-run centres, art journals and magazines, and cinemas here and abroad.
Painters, printmakers, photographers, video artists, performers, sculptors, draftspeople, critics-they create public art works, serve on the boards of arts organizations, produce documentaries, sit on juries, curate exhibitions, write and publish exhibition and book reviews, organize festival events, and more.
Alongside the development of their professional careers and their active engagement within the artistic community, they have chosen to mentor the next generation. With remarkable versatility, these artist-professors encourage students to deepen their manual and technical skills, help them cultivate a personal artistic practice and critical thinking, and foster an awareness of the artistic ecosystem that surrounds them.
This tightly knit team forms the Visual Arts Department of the Cégep du Vieux Montréal: Marilou André, Céline B. La Terreur, Christiane Baillargeon, Mathieu Beauséjour, Caroline Boileau, Catherine Bolduc, Sylvie Cotton, Martin Désilets, Chloé Desjardins, Jérôme Fortin, Pascal Gingras, Isabelle Guimond, Philippe Hamelin, David Lafrance, Stéphane La Rue, Véronique Malo, Thierry Marceau, Karine Payette, Jean Pelchat, Dominique Pétrin, Catherine Plaisance, Guylaine Séguin, and Marie-Hélène Turcotte. - Jérôme Fortin, artist and coordinator of the Visual arts programme at Cégep du Vieux Montréal
BIOS
Marilou André
Marilou André is a Montréal-based artist whose practice interrogates urban space, community, and activism in order to propose new ways of inhabiting memory. Her social sculptures were presented at the Musée de la civilisation in Québec City in 2017, at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Valdivia in Chile in 2014, at the Fine Arts Gallery of the University of British Columbia in 2013, and in a solo exhibition at Espace WIP as part of the 2019 Montreal Printed Arts Biennial. Since summer 2025, she has been participating in the Camp Souveraineté project located at km 134 of Chemin Parent, a site being developed to inhabit and share the living ancestral knowledge of the Atikamekw Nehirowisiw Aski way of life and to protect the last biodiversity-rich forests.
Céline B. La Terreur
Céline B. La Terreur holds a Master of Fine Arts in Visual and Media Arts from UQAM and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University. She also holds a diploma in Feminist Studies from Concordia University. She completed her college studies at Cégep du Vieux Montréal. Céline B. La Terreur has presented her work in solo exhibitions in France and Canada. She co-directed the documentary "COZIC" with Etienne Desrosiers.
She has received a number of bursaries from the Canada Council for the Arts and her work belongs to several public and private collections.
Christiane Baillargeon
Christiane Baillargeon earned a Bachelor's degree from the Université de Montréal and a Master's degree in Sculpture from Parsons School of Art and Design in New York (1986). She participated in programs at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and pursued doctoral studies in Arts Studies and Practices at UQAM (2003-2013). A multidisciplinary artist, she has participated in solo and group exhibitions for many years. Her works are included in public and private collections in several provinces and countries where she has worked or resided (Québec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Alberta, France, Sweden, United States). Recipient of several grants, including the Studio du Québec à Paris (1990), she has taken part in conferences (ACFAS 2004), lectures, and has written for specialized publications (Espace, ETC, Vie des arts). Committed to arts development, she offers workshops in schools (Culture in Schools program). She has extensive teaching experience at the college and university levels (Cégep de l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Dawson College, Bois-de-Boulogne, Ahuntsic and Vieux Montréal, Université de Moncton, Mount Allison University, Université de Montréal, UQAT).
Mathieu Beauséjour
In recent years, Mathieu Beauséjour has presented solo exhibitions at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides (Saint-Jérôme), Fonderie Darling (Montréal), and Bradley Ertaskiran (Montréal), among others. In 2014, a retrospective exhibition was held at the Musée régional de Rimouski, and a catalogue entitled La révolte de l'imagination was co-published with Centre Expression in Saint-Hyacinthe. His work has been included in notable group exhibitions such as Manif d'art 3 and 7 - the Québec Biennial, and the Québec Triennial at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. His works are held in national museum collections and numerous other collections. Beauséjour received the Giverny Capital Prize in 2010 and was a finalist for the Sobey Art Award (2008) and the Louis-Comtois Prize in 2012 and 2016.
Caroline Boileau
Working from a feminist position, with a strong interest in health-intimate, public, social, and political-Caroline Boileau creates works, often hybrid in form, developed through a multidisciplinary practice encompassing installation, drawing, video, and performance. The hybrid body and the multiple representations of the body-particularly the female body-are recurring themes in her research, informed by art history, the history of medicine and science, and current events. Active in artist-run centres since the 1990s, she has participated in numerous residency projects, and her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Scandinavia, and Europe. Her video work is distributed by GIV (Groupe Intervention Vidéo), and she is represented by Galerie JANO (Montréal).
Catherine Bolduc
Catherine Bolduc has presented numerous exhibitions in Canada and abroad (Japan, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, United States). In 2007-2008 she was in residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, and in 2010 at the Studio du Québec in Tokyo, among others. Recipient of the Powerhouse Prize in 2013, she has also received numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec throughout her career. In addition to completing a dozen public art projects, her works are included in major private and public collections (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, National Bank Collection, Desjardins Collection, among others). She has taught at Cégep du Vieux Montréal since 2019. Catherine Bolduc currently collaborates with Galerie Chiguer art contemporain, which recently presented her solo exhibition La femme sur Mars in its Québec City and Montréal spaces.
Sylvie Cotton
Sylvie Cotton is an interdisciplinary artist (performance art, drawing, writing, and installation). She teaches visual arts at Université Laval and at Cégep du Vieux Montréal. In parallel, she practices meditation and leads retreats exploring the connections between seated meditation and creativity.
Martin Désilets
Martin Désilets is represented by Galerie Bigaignon in Paris. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, notably in Paris (Galerie Bigaignon, Offscreen Paris, Geste Paris), Berlin (Künstlerhaus Bethanien), Lausanne (Photo Elysée), Basel (Kunsthaus Baselland), Montréal (Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Occurrence, B-312, Circa, and Optica), Joliette (Musée d'art de Joliette), Longueuil (Plein sud), Laval (Maison des arts), Toronto (G44 Gallery), Oakville (Oakville Galleries), New York (The NARS Foundation), and Beirut (Espace SD). Several residencies have been especially significant in his career: Paris (2025), Berlin (2023), London (2022), Basel and Musée d'art de Joliette (2021), New York (2019), Paris (2017), Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland (2016, with The Rooms, St. John's), and Berlin (2015). His works are included in numerous private and public collections, including the permanent collection of Photo Elysée (Cantonal Museum for Photography), the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal.
Chloé Desjardins
Chloé Desjardins holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University and a Master's degree in Creation from the École des arts visuels et médiatiques at UQAM. Her training led her to deepen her exploration of casting techniques, which now occupy a central place in her sculptural practice.
Through various bodies of sculptural and installation work, she explores and challenges the status of everyday objects and their relationship to the artwork. Adopting a reflexive stance manifested through material and contextual displacements and transfers, she invites viewers to reconsider preconceived ideas about artworks, the spaces they inhabit, and the systems that support them. Her approach notably involves casting packaging, tools, materials, furniture, and architectural elements. These forms-drawn from everyday life and the behind-the-scenes of artistic production-make visible the contexts of fabrication and display mechanisms usually relegated to the background. By combining elements in tension, her works not only spark curiosity but also encourage the viewer to engage both sensitivity and critical thinking. Her work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions in Québec and across Canada and has been the subject of critical writing. Her works are part of public collections, and one sculpture is permanently installed at Jolicoeur metro station in Montréal. Recipient of the Plein sud Prize (2014), she has received multiple grants from CALQ and the Canada Council for the Arts. She is currently Chair of the Board of Galerie B-312.
Jérôme Fortin
In his sculptural installations, Jérôme Fortin combines the tradition of cabinets of curiosities with mass consumption practices of the 20th and 21st centuries. Cork stoppers, plastic bottles, books, matches, nails, and tin cans are cleverly manipulated and assembled into multiple series of visual and material curiosities.
Since 1996, he has presented more than a dozen solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions worldwide. In 2007, his work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MACM). His works are included in several collections in Canada and internationally.
Pascal Gingras
After beginning his university studies at the École des arts visuels of Université Laval (2000-2004), Pascal Gingras pursued graduate studies at the Universität der Künste in Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts), under the supervision of Tony Cragg and Florian Slotawa (2004-2008). Upon returning to Québec, he presented several solo and group exhibitions, including Parcours 1, a monumental work as part of Art Souterrain. Following grants from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec in 2010 and 2013, he presented the solo exhibitions La Joconde at L'Œil de Poisson (Québec City) in 2011 and Anti-Onto Chachacha / fantômatica at Centre Clark (Montréal) in 2014.
Isabelle Guimond
Isabelle Guimond lives and works in Montréal and has been represented by Galerie Simon Blais since 2018. Her work has been presented in Québec, the United States, France, and Mexico. In recent years, her work has been shown at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Baltimore), Galerie Néon (Lyon), Galerie de l'UQAM, Galerie B-312, Centre Skol, Galerie d'art d'Outremont, Galerie Laroche/Joncas, Galerie Trois Points, Maison de la culture Maisonneuve, and Galerie Simon Blais. She has completed residencies at Centre SAGAMIE, L'Écart (Rouyn-Noranda), and Pigment Sauvage (Baltimore) with the collective Filles Debouttes! (Christine Major and Gabrielle Lajoie-Bergeron). She has participated in numerous art fairs and group exhibitions, including Geist: la présence représentée at Galerie Laroche/Joncas and Insulaire at Galerie Trois Points. In 2019 she presented La compétition des bonnes nouvelles, her first solo exhibition at Simon Blais, followed in 2023 by Cette lueur dans laquelle je m'épanche. She has taught at Cégep du Vieux Montréal since 2023.
Philippe Hamelin
Philippe Hamelin's artistic practice lies at the intersection of visual arts, cinema, and experimental video, and primarily takes the form of installation, single-channel video, and CGI animation. Various modes of montage-whether videographic or spatial-are central to his research. Interested in the relationship between special effects and affect, and in the correlations between outward and inward movement-the act of moving and being moved-his works often result in a techno-dramatic spectacle.
He completed his college studies at Cégep du Vieux Montréal. He holds a degree in Film Studies from the Université de Montréal and a Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University. Since 2001, his works have been presented in galleries as well as in numerous festivals in Canada and internationally. In 2014, he initiated the project La Mirage with Sophie Bélair Clément and Vincent Bonin. In 2015, he received the award for Best Art and Experimental Film at the 33rd Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois. In 2017, Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen devoted a solo exhibition to his work; in 2019, he exhibited at the Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain; and in 2022 at the Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides.
David Lafrance
David Lafrance (b. 1976) completed a Master's degree in Visual Arts at Concordia University. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and biennials in Canada, the United States, and France. Among his recent solo exhibitions are those at Salle Alfred-Pellan at the Maison des arts de Laval (2024), Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay (2018), Galerie Hugues Charbonneau (2014, 2016, 2018, 2021, and 2025), CEAAC (Strasbourg, 2015), L'Œil de Poisson (Québec City, 2014), and the Musée régional de Rimouski (2012). He has participated in various group exhibitions, including at Galerie d'art Stewart Hall (2021), Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides (2018), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2015), L'Œil de Poisson (2015), Art Action Actuel (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, 2013), and Centre d'art L'Écart (Rouyn-Noranda, 2013). His works are held in several collections, including those of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Hydro-Québec, the Desjardins Group, and the cities of Montréal and Laval.
Stéphane La Rue
It is across the boundaries between painting, drawing, and sculpture that Stéphane La Rue devotes himself to a pictorial exploration of visual phenomena linked to a formal approach to art, through color, light, and materials. In his works, the clarity of the material asserts itself as a substitute for the purity of form championed by modernism. The artist turns a deaf ear to the limits drawn by the specificity of the arts. He sculpts the support, retraces it, and depicts its contours.
He has had several solo exhibitions across Canada, at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Galerie Bellemare Lambert and Galerie de l’UQAM in Montréal, the Art Gallery of York University in Toronto, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and at La Fondation Molinari (Montréal) among others. He exhibited at TrépanierBaer in Calgary and Diaz Contemporary in Toronto. He has participated in several group exhibitions, most notably in New York City, Lyon (France) and Luxenbourg and Istanbul. He partook in the Triennale québécoise in 2011 and the Canadian Biennial in 2014. His works are found in a number of public, private and corporate collections in Canada and in the U.S.A.
Véronique Malo
Véronique Malo lives and works in Montréal and Lanaudière (Québec, Canada), where she continues her research in visual arts. She holds both a Master's and a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts from Concordia University (Montréal, Canada), as well as having completed a postgraduate program at Valand Academy (University of Gothenburg, Sweden). During her Master's studies, she also studied at the Glasgow School of Art (Scotland), and during her Bachelor's degree, at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque (United States). She has participated in artist residencies, and her work has been presented in solo exhibitions (Musée d'art de Joliette) and in group exhibitions in Canada and Europe. She has taken part in several public art competitions and created works under Québec's Policy for the Integration of the Arts into Architecture. Her practice is supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. A professor in the Visual Arts Department at Cégep du Vieux Montréal, she has been teaching at the post-secondary level since 2008.
Thierry Marceau
My research leads me to create actions that re-stage images familiar to everyone. These popular images or mythical figures are reworked, reassembled, and diverted. From the Mountie to Pop artist Andy Warhol, these characters are primarily chosen for their costumes, which offer vast possibilities once worn. Through costume, I am propelled. Each project transports me into territories to explore, where I must find the appropriate attire. Every site becomes a set to occupy; every spectator becomes an extra in unexpected tableaux. Each person must play along in order to receive my attitude, which simultaneously oscillates between spectacle, humour, and discomfort. The actions are carried out with the intention of producing new images that can, in turn, be reworked, represented, and reused. Thierry Marceau grew up in Oka. He completed a Master's degree in Visual and Media Arts at UQAM. You may have noticed him at VIVA! Art+Action (2006 and 2009), Centre Clark, ElvisFest in Brantford (2007), Théâtre Plaza, Galerie de l'UQAM, Nuit Blanche Toronto (2008), the funeral of Michael Jackson in Los Angeles (2009), M:ST Calgary (2010), the Gala des arts visuels (2011), performing the first performative 1% at 2-22 (2012-2016), Ajagemo Gallery at the Canada Council for the Arts (2017), or Nuit Blanche Edmonton (2018). *It is possible you may have seen him in many other places.
Karine Payette
Karine Payette (b. 1983) was born in Montréal, Québec, where she lives and works. She holds a Master's degree in Visual and Media Arts from UQAM. Working with sculpture, installation, photography, and video, she recreates environments inspired by everyday life that function as freeze-frames or suspended narratives. Interweaving real and imagined elements, her works question comfort in a world undergoing constant transformation. Her recent research focuses on relationships between species and their immediate environments. Since 2010, she has participated in several solo and group exhibitions. Her works are included in the collections of the City of Montréal, the City of Longueuil, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d'art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec Art Lending Collection. Since 2015, she has completed dozens of art integration projects for schools, parks, libraries, and hospitals across Québec. Karine Payette is represented by Galerie Art Mûr (Montréal).
Jean Pelchat
Jean Pelchat is an artist-photography-and professor in the Visual Arts Department at Cégep du Vieux Montréal. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in Canada and abroad; in recent years, however, primarily at the Cégep. He was a member of the editorial board of Esse magazine at the beginning of its publication (late 1980s). During that period, he also published in numerous journals, several collective publications, and four books, including La survie de Vincent Van Gogh (Xyz éditeur, Québec; éditions de l'Aube, France, 1999), and its English translation, The Afterlife of Vincent Van Gogh (Exile Editions, Toronto, 2001). He was the principal organizer of the four CVM Biennials. Forthcoming publication: Ciel Variable magazine, no. 132 (Spring 2026).
Dominique Pétrin
Dominique Pétrin is an iconoclastic multidisciplinary artist whose practice has developed primarily through the medium of screen printing. She was a member of the legendary petrochemical rock group Les Georges Leningrad (2000-2007) and has collaborated with renowned artists such as Sophie Calle and Pil and Galia Kollectiv, as well as with choreographers Antonija Livingstone, Stephen Thompson, Andrew Tay, and Jennifer Lacey in the performances Culture, Administration & Trembling and Make Banana Cry.
She created a room at Banksy's Walled Off Hotel (2017) in Palestine and produced a permanent artwork at Place-des-Arts metro station in Montréal. She was a finalist for the Sobey Art Award in 2014 and received the Monique-et-Léo-Parizeau Prize in 2023 for innovation in printmaking.
Catherine Plaisance
Catherine Plaisance completed a Bachelor's degree in Studio Arts at Université Laval before pursuing a Master's in Visual and Media Arts at UQAM. Since 2002, she has presented several solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions in North America and Europe. In recent years, she has begun a visual research practice centred on handmade paper. This creative process allows her to approach ancestral know-how while offering limitless freedom of expression. The sequence of slow and meticulous steps inherent in papermaking enables her to connect deeply with raw material. The textures, colours, and shapes of each sheet become a site of experimentation for future assemblages. She maintains an active artistic practice while teaching visual arts at Cégep du Vieux Montréal. She has also accumulated experience in exhibition curating and contemporary art event coordination. Her practice is varied, continually exploring new media. She works primarily with photography, collage, sculpture, handmade paper, and installation. She lives in Montréal and Louiseville, where her studio is located.
Guylaine Séguin
With a playful tone tinged with irony, Guylaine Séguin reveals the duplicity of images-their fiction and artifice. Through framing strategies and shifts in perspective, her photographic work blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction by capturing images already present in our environment or by foregrounding the processes of image construction through self-referential imagery. She also works in video (installation and single-channel) and collage (digital or otherwise), constructing and deconstructing images.
Guylaine Séguin holds a Master's degree in Visual and Media Arts from UQAM and has received grants from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the FRQSC. She has exhibited in Rouyn-Noranda, Laval, Montréal, Toronto, Liège, and New Orleans. She has participated in artist residencies and created in situ intervention events in public space. She has been teaching at Cégep du Vieux Montréal since 2011.
Marie-Hélène Turcotte
"Elementary is the trace of a line. As if letter by letter, I draw line by line. Without a safety net, I assert my language on the surface of paper, a territory of all possibilities. These lines-protagonists of a drawing, of a film-seek to represent the existence of movement, to grasp its essence. They move within a blurred temporality, preoccupied and concerned with their own drawn destinies." Originally trained in architecture, Marie-Hélène Turcotte divides her practice between drawing, printmaking, animation, and installation. Originally from Joliette, she lives and works in Montréal. She has been teaching at Cégep du Vieux Montréal since 2022.