Bio
Active since the turn of the millennium, Julie Picard lives in Québec City in Canada. She has been the recipient of over twenty awards, including the Prix Videre Releve (Quebec City 2008), the gold medal for sculpture at the 6th Jeux de la Francophonie (Beirut 2009) and grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. Her work has been presented in over forty exhibitions and ten residencies in Canada, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Poland and Lebanon. Mettre sur papier, a monograph on her work on paper from 1998 to 2004, was published in 2015. Her work is part of private, public and corporate collections.
Statement
I like to think that I am a child of waste sorting. Having grown up in an era when recycling bins started appearing in schools and cities, I take a resolutely ecological approach in my art practice. I fully integrate salvaged and low-impact materials, simplified equipment, handmade objects, and modes of presentation into recyclable interventions. In particular, I am interested in found paper. This material comes into my work through multiple forms and processes.
Fragile and ephemeral, paper provides both the material and a way of working. My practice focuses on social, ecological and economical issues by poetically exploring matter. I examine the notion of sustainability and the act of leaving a mark. My works present a material reflection of impermanence, a metaphor for our own existence.
After more than twenty years, I am still engrossed in this reflection through a long and ongoing experience.