Past exhibition

François Morelli

From October 6th 2017 to January 7th 2018

"Morelli’s distinctive pictorial style is anchored in his development of a visual language that expresses itself in narrative form. The artist’s work is thus an act of enunciation, arising from his transferential relationship with the other – a support for this intersubjective truth that he seeks to document."

Excerpt from the preface of the catalogue, by Isabelle de Mévius

In 2017, 1700 La Poste was pleased to announce this new solo exhibition dedicated to Montreal artist François Morelli. Morelli’s exceptional career spans four decades and more than six artistic disciplines, engaged in a variety of ways over time. From freehand drawing to printmaking, from public actions to in situ performances and installations, Morelli’s work is rooted in a daily practice of drawing and a constant desire to act directly on the fabric of society. Protean in approach, Morelli explores concepts of passage, migration, and transformation. His work probes the borders between collective and personal memory, and the connections between the political and the domestic, the tragic and the grotesque. With François Morelli, Isabelle de Mévius, director of 1700 La Poste and curator of the exhibition, reflects on the past forty years of the artist’s production through the presentation of more than fifty works.

Exhibition views
François Morelli exhibition, photography: Guy L'Heureux
François Morelli exhibition, photography: Guy L'Heureux
François Morelli exhibition, photography: Guy L'Heureux
François Morelli exhibition, photography: Guy L'Heureux
François Morelli exhibition, photography: Guy L'Heureux
François Morelli exhibition, photography: Guy L'Heureux
Works
François Morelli, Colossal head III, 2006 François Morelli, Colossal head III, 2006, ink on paper, 156 cm x 105 cm, Photography © Guy L'Heureux
François Morelli, Belthead, 1998 François Morelli, Belthead, 1998, belts, rivets, concrete block and mirror, 41 cm x 150 cm x 18 cm, Photography © Guy L'Heureux
François Morelli, Belthead (detail), 1998 François Morelli, Belthead (detail), 1998, belts, rivets, concrete block and mirror, 41 cm x 150 cm x 18 cm, Photography © Guy L'Heureux
François Morelli, La femme loup, 2015 François Morelli, La femme loup, 2015, ink on paper, 245 cm x 309 cm, Photography © Guy L'Heureux
François Morelli, La ruche, 2002 François Morelli, La ruche, 2002, watercolour on St-Armand paper, 60,5 cm x 45,5 cm, Photography © Guy L'Heureux
François Morelli, Dream figures in moonlight 7/12, 2015 François Morelli, Dream figures in moonlight 7/12, 2015, acrylic on paper, 67 cm x 100 cm, Photography © Guy L'Heureux
Biography
Portrait of François Morelli
Photo credit: Béatrice Flynn
François Morelli was born in Montreal in 1953. In 1975, he completed a BFA in painting and drawing at Concordia University. He worked and exhibited at the Don Stewart Gallery from 1975 to 1981 and helped found the artist-run exhibition space Articule in 1979-80. He taught at Université du Québec à Chicoutimi in 1981. From 1981 to 1991, he lived in the New York City area, earning an MFA in installation and performance art in 1983 from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He taught at Rutgers from 1983 to 1990, and at the City University of New York and the State University of New York in Manhattan between 1985 and 1990. Upon returning to Quebec in 1991, he taught at Université du Québec à Trois- Rivières until 1996. Since 1996, he has taught at Concordia University, where he has headed the DLD (Drawing Lab Dessin) with Eric Simon since 2012. Among other honours, he received the Excellence Award at the Biennale du dessin, de l’estampe et du papier in Alma, Quebec, in 1997 and the Louis-Comtois Award from the City of Montreal in 2007.
Documentary
Affiche du film François Morelli l'artiste
DOCUMENTARY FILM

François Morelli

L'artiste

The 1700 La Poste is proud to present FRANCOIS MORELLI L’ARTISTE, a documentary produced in the context of the retrospective exhibition dedicated to François Morelli. This second collaboration between the Éditions de Mévius and the director Suzanne Guy draws a portrait of the Montreal-based artist along his 40 last years of artistic work. 

Publication

Les Éditions de Mévius

Exhibition catalog

François Morelli

In conjunction with the François Morelli exhibition in 2017, Les Éditions de Mévius publishes an art book introducing readers and art lovers to the previously unseen journals in which the artist draws every day. With texts by Bernard Lamarche, Curator of Contemporary Art at the MNBAQ since 2000, and jake moore, artist, cultural worker, and curator, this richly illustrated publication offers a comprehensive view of the artist’s practice since 1974.

Publication

2017

Format

31,5 x 25 x 4 cm

ISBN

978-2-9816657-0-6

Bookbinding

Hardcover

Collection

Art and essays

Number of pages

256

Authors

Isabelle de Mévius, Bernard Lamarche and jake moore

 

Photography

Leonard Bullock, Denis Farley, Béatrice Flynn, Lorrraine Gilbert, Milutin Gubash, Stuart Horodner, Carl Johnson, Guy L'heureux, Paul Litherland, Didier Morelli, François Morelli, Joshua Nevski, Juliana Pivato, Marisa Portolose, Daniel Smith, Richard-Max Tremblay, Darrel Wilson

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Read the preface