Dominic Besner
Biography
For several years, Besner has been wholly dedicated to painting, searching for the aesthetics to shape his world vision. His colorful and moving paintings are inspired by his studies in architecture, his artistic mentors and by the people he encountered in the side streets and alleys of Montreal. One easily imagines how his clairvoyant and playful observations of the world give way to his paintings. Besner is profoundly concerned by the body’s degradation, by the aspects of the body that call upon reflection and observation. He creates characters that keep a trace of the past, sometimes seeming like a shadow of themselves, facing their destiny without fear. This fabulous jungle was inspired by characters from Otto Dix and Nicolas de Crécy, a comic book artist. It is an environment that is future looking, somewhat like human beings; torn but crippled with hope…
Besner was born in North Lancaster, Ontario, in 1965 and completed a bachelor's degree in architecture at the University of Montreal in 1992. His training as an architect, which he undertook at Algonquin College in Ottawa a few years before his bachelor’s, gave him the opportunity to reflect upon the city and its components: the primarily human dimension, the tradition which any city plan must follow and the elements that are necessary to survive in a cultural environment. His university years provided him with a critical mind allowing him to define a living environment centered on human beings, taking into account the past, present and future. His studies most of all lead him to painting, his true passion, and to a career, which transformed his formal training into a pictorial esthetic of figures and space, reflected through the half realist, half fictional gaze of the artist.
To create his paintings, Besner uses a mixed technique on canvas; he uses mostly oil and its rich color pallet, as well as acrylic paint, structural mortar, china marker and aerosol paint. Along with this material, he uses a finger application technique and scrapes the surface of the canvas.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2007 ‘’Banquet of Nacara’’, Venise Cadre Gallery, Casablanca (Morocco)
Oct 9-19th 2004 ‘’The excess of the coveted ‘’, CDP Capital Center, Montreal (Canada)
Nov. 1st 2004 ‘’ The Xth past city ‘’, Head office of the Cirque du Soleil, Montréal, (Canada)
Ma 24th–Ap. 21st ’02 ‘’ The moan of the moons ‘’, Estampe Plus Gallery, Quebec, (Canada)
Nov. 18-19, 2000 Saint-Dizier Gallery, Montreal (Canada)
May 20-21st 2000 Besner at Baie-Saint-Paul, Iris Art Gallery, Baie-Saint-Paul (Canada)
Oct. 4-29th, 1998 ‘’ Dramatic turn of events ’’ Estampe Plus, Québec (Canada)
October 1995 Naomi Gallery, Montreal (Canada)
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
Sept 23, 2007- Vaudreuil-Dorion Museum (Canada)
Nov. 4, 2007 (Exhibition ‘’The night of the cities‘’, presenting architectural models, stained glass and painting)
11 JAN. 2007– Musée La Villa des Arts de Casablanca (Maroc)
March 15, 2007 (Itinerant exhibition Au Fil de l’Art presented by the ONA Foundation and R.A.R.E.)
June 4, 2007 ( Exhibition Au Fil de l’Art, artworks of Besner presented with the caftans of three Moroccan designers: Karim Tassi, Albert Oiknine and Mohamed Lakhdar)
29 NOV. 2003– Musée de Las Artes de l’Université de Guadalajara (Mexique)
30 JAN. 2004 Group show organized by Loto-Québec)
2000 Musée Pierre-Boucher, Trois-Rivières (Canada).
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
November 2007 MX Gallery, Au Fil de l’Art, Artworks of Besner presented alongside Haute-couture fashion by six Quebec designers (Yso, Denis Gagnon, Yves Jean Lacasse, Antonio Ortega, Rush Couture, Andy Thê-Ahn) in addition to three Moroccan designers (Karim Tassi, Albert Oiknine and Mohamed Lakhdar) Montreal (Canada)
June 2007 Galerie MX, soirée Rendez-vous, Montréal (Canada) June 2007 MX Gallery, ‘’Rendez-vous night’’, Montreal, (Canada)
March 2006 Las Olas Fine Arts, Strawberries–Champagne, Fort Lauderdale, Floride (Florida) January 2006 (USA) Rosetta Stone Fine Art, A Night at the Circus, Juno Beach, Floride (Florida)
May 2005 Thenth Anniversary, Saint-Dizier Gallery, Montreal, (Canada)
2003-2004 Galerie 479, Ottawa (Canada);
Galerie du Dauphin, Honfleur (France).
March 19 2004 Galerie Estampe Plus, Québec (Canada).
2000-2007 Represented by Estampe Plus Gallery, Quebec (Canada)
2000-2003 Teodora Art Gallery, Toronto (Canada).
11 NOV.– Les Impatients, Centre d’expression et d’interprétation, Montréal (Canada).
19 DEC. 2002 Nov. 11 – Les impatients, Center of Expression and interpretation, Montreal
NOV. 2002 Galerie Saint-Dizier, Montréal (Canada).
1999 Artrageous Gallery, New York (USA);
Galerie Drabinsky, Toronto (Canada).
1997 Galerie d’art du Petit Champlain, Québec (Canada).
1996 Galerie Le Portal, Québec (Canada); Louise Smith Gallery, Toronto (Canada).
1995 Galerie Leclerc-Churchill, Montréal (Canada).