Chromatics: colours,
harmonies and contrasts
Arts Sutton presents blown, slumped and cast glass artwork from artist Maryse Chartrand
June 8, 2024
By Andrew Burlone
The exhibition Chromatique, on show at Galerie Arts Sutton until July 7, 2024, reflects a genuine fascination with colour almost to the point of obsession. Through works composed of many glass pieces, artist Maryse Chartrand relentlessly explores striking new chromatic combinations.
Through works composed of many glass pieces, artist Maryse Chartrand relentlessly explores striking new chromatic combinations.
Every nuance, every gradation becomes a pretext for creating installations of great visual richness. It is not only colour that captivates the artist but also the evocative power of the shapes and motifs she manages to conjure up through the repetition of simple elements.
By juxtaposing and arranging countless pieces of tinted glass, the artist gives life to hybrid compositions, where the viewer can in turn perceive landscapes, textures and kaleidoscopic reflections.
The accumulation of materials creates a vibration, a fascinating energy that emanates from the work. Flamboyant red, ocean blue, deep green… No nuance is overlooked by this artist, who seems intent on embracing the entire chromatic spectrum.
‘The accumulation of materials creates a vibration, a fascinating energy.’
Chromatique is a veritable immersion in a colourful universe, rich in contrasts and vibrant textures. An exhibition that delights the senses and strikes a chord with lovers of colour and meticulously crafted materials, this prismatic radiance is a must-see.
About the artist
Maryse Chartrand’s path to becoming a glass artist was not the most direct. Before fully devoting herself to her passion for this material, she first followed the paths of a very different career for 25 long years, in the field of communications.
It wasn’t until 2004, during an introductory course in glassblowing, that her passion for this artistic medium was awakened. From the very first moment she was able to work with this fragile yet malleable material, she felt a deep desire to reinvent herself as a glass artist. Breaking free from the intellectual constraints of her former profession to indulge in the creative, artisanal gesture was a form of liberation for her talent.
In 2010, Maryse Chartrand took the plunge and decided to devote herself entirely to her new passion for glass. Leaving the world of communications behind for good, she returned to the classroom, or rather the workshop, for three years of intensive full-time training.
At the Centre des métiers du verre du Québec, Espace Verre, she immerses herself in an in-depth apprenticeship in the many techniques and disciplines associated with the art of glass. Blowing, moulding, stained glass, glass paste… Maryse learned about the many facets of this material, which is rich in creative possibilities.
‘Blowing, moulding, stained glass are the various facets of this material, rich in creative possibilities.’
In the spring of 2013, after immersing herself in the knowledge and ancestral gestures of master glassmakers, she finally graduated with pride. This crucial step now allowed her to fully launch herself as a glass artist in her own right.
From that day on, nothing distracted her from her chosen path. Maryse devotes herself body and soul to developing her practice and creative language through glass. Each new piece celebrates this fascinating material, allowing an ever more audacious exploration of its infinite nuances and textures.
The artist’s creative process seems to be guided by an almost intimate relationship with glass. It’s as if this precious material was the confidant of her sense of wonder, from which emerges the inspiration for each of her new series of works.
‘Glass is a material capable of creating immersive environments in which the viewer can enter and be enveloped by chromatic magic.’
Sometimes, it is the glass’s almost magical ability to suggest weightlessness that fascinates Maryse and fuels her creative process. She likes to work her pieces to give them an airy grace, an almost dematerialized lightness.
At other times, the artist lets herself be carried away by the vibrant, dazzling way in which glass transmits and refracts colour. She explores daring chromatic combinations, playing on the effects of transparency and superimposed hues.
Sometimes, the incredible ability of glass to freeze movement inspires her. Her works become veritable visual snapshots, capturing the grace of a gesture or the fluidity of a form in solid matter.
With each series, glass seems to become the accomplice of a new facet of Maryse Chartrand’s creative wonder. An intimate and rich relationship that never ceases to drive the artist to reinvent herself.
A never-ending creative quest
Glass is a material capable of creating immersive environments in which the viewer can enter and be enveloped by chromatic magic.
Maryse Chartrand’s dialogue of wonder with glass always evolves and explores new territories. Today, her creative quest leads her to conceive works that unfold and take possession of the space as a whole.
This new direction adds an extra dimension to her artistic approach. It’s no longer just a question of working with the intrinsic properties of glass, but also of exploiting the evocative power of numbers and accumulation in a three-dimensional environment. Her recent creations take on the appearance of sculptural installations, in which glass elements are arranged and juxtaposed according to a meticulously studied choreography. The striking visual impact of these accumulations of shapes and colours is awe-inspiring.
It’s not only the suggestive power of glass but also the play on perspective and the optical effects induced by the surrounding space that become a source of inspiration for Maryse. Her works defy boundaries, unfolding sometimes on the floor, sometimes on the wall, like sculptural vitrified frescoes.
Chromatique, A taste for colour
Chromatique marks a milestone in Maryse Chartrand’s career. This is the very first solo exhibition entirely devoted to her ambitious installation works deployed in space, a total immersion in the bright, luminous universe of this artist who has made glass her absolute language of expression.
Maryse Chartrand’s glass pieces are part of international private collections, as well as those of the Musée des métiers d’art du Québec, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
CHROMATIQUE
Galerie d’art contemporain Arts Sutton
7, rue Academy, Sutton (Québec) J0E 2K0
Open Thursday to Sunday, 1 to 5 pm
info@artssutton.com • 450-538-2563
Opening: Sunday, June 9, at 2 pm
Artist presentation at 2:30 pm
Images: Andrew Burlone, courtesy of Arts Sutton
Arts Sutton is a place of encounter and reflection, dedicated to the dissemination and promotion of contemporary visual arts in all their richness and diversity. Arts Sutton
Thank you so much for this wonderful review of my exhibition. You really captured the essence of my quest.