C.V.
EDUCATION
Concordia University,
M.A. in Art Education, Montreal, CA 1985-91
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Art Education, 1979-84
Old-Montreal College,
Diploma in Visual Arts, 1977-79
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Sylvain Garneau Library, Laval, September 2020
Marius-Barbeau Library, Laval, February-March 2020
Title: The aesthetics of the mechanical object
Circa Gallery, Montreal, August 2019
Title: The scrapyard, from nature to identity
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Alpap Gallery, Laval, 2019
Title: Laval's Annual Art Show
Mercier House of Culture, Montreal, 2018
Title: The Cabinet of Curiosities, Quebec Association of Visual Arts Teachers
DISTINCTIONS
Special Mention from the jury, ALPAP, Laval, CA 2019
Mercier House of Culture, Montreal, 2018. One of my works was chosen by the members for the invitation card of the exhibition
ASSOCIATIONS
Montreal Visual Artists Group (RAAV)
Vertical, Artist Centre, Laval
Quebec Association of Visual Arts Teachers (AQESAP)
Laval Association for Multidisciplinary Arts (ALPAP)
TEACHING EXPERENCES
Visual Arts Teacher
Montreal School Board, Montreal, CA 1991-2021
Lecturer
Concordia University, Montreal, CA 1991-92
Short Biography
In her art work, an experienced mechanic can easily recognize pieces or cars and engine parts. Often, the pieces of motor engines are still situated in their original placement which is the scrapyard. Those mechanical parts are subjected to a deconstructive process and are therefore humanised.
Christiane Arbour was born in Montreal, Canada. She has completed a master's degree in arts at Concordia University and has been teaching art for many years. She considers that drawing is the basis of pictorial art, which she uses to achieve a certain realism. Therefore, her work in oil and her drawings are perceived at the limit of realism and abstract. She has participated at several exhibitions.
Artistic process
Motors, heaters and carcasses,
the appearance of a mechanical identity
In my works, an experienced mechanic can recognize with precision auto parts from a scrap yard.
My artistic reseach highlights the damages caused by time on carcasses of cars, ripped motors, conductive pipes or off tension wiring, for example.
Looking for a topic to be investigated, I started to draw the objects around me. Kettles, toasters, electric tools, shiny cameras: those were the first pastel drawings of large formats composing my academic production.
Then the observation of carcasses of cars gutted in fields or on the road made me observe the possible processing of different materials. The torn and twisted leather was unveiled as a metaphor of human skin, the fragment of rusty pipes that form a cross-line representing the ducts carrying life, fluffy foam smashed seats revealing a metal fence representing the human skeleton, of the random position of fabrics creating curves, the devastation caused by the fire creating black iridescent, among other things, all this revealed to me a world to discover, a nourishing universe of textures and shapes I take pleasure to reinvent and deconstruct.
Looking for a more personal artistic approach, my theme, the scrapyard, became a place of resurrection, of calm, a new world that united the human and the mechanical.
Sometimes my challenge is to create a harmonious ensemble of forms. Some other times my subject imposes me a restraint in the use of colors. The work results in a set of denatured objects issued from a particular mechanical world.
