Richard Purdy PhD
Born in Ottawa, ON.
Lives & works in Montreal, QC.
"The history of my artistic practice has been the subversion of reality systems (ontological, epistemological or phenomenological) through the application of their distinctive reality demonstration protocols upon fictive material. This casts doubt on the reality of the discipline, imploding the belief system of the viewer. This is tergiversation, and I have systematically used it to undermine many disciplinary fields.
I am particularly drawn to in situ installations, monumental and serial artworks, texts, sensory art and the realisation of videos and performances. Primarily active in the scientific humanities, I work in all mediums. I believe that art is about symbols, and that the symbol colonies I create are larger than fields, techniques or specialities.
Embracing the cultural bulimia of our début-de-siècle, I try to fuel the fire ... delighting in enigmas, searching out obscure subject matter, lies, res minutae, and meretricious figures of speech, weaving fictions into them, and teasing them up by the hair."
CV: for complete Curriculum go to ARCHIVE SITE, side panel.
Education
2001 PhD (Départs), UQÀM, Montréal, QC
1997 MA, Villa Schifanoia, Badia Fiesolana, Florence, ITALY
1975 BFA, Nova Scotia College of Art, Halifax, NS.
Representation
Galerie Roger Bellemare-Christian Lambert
Solo exhibitions
2020 - LES FANTÖMES, Centre d'exposition du Mont Laurier, QC.
2017 - VANITAS, Galerie Roger Bellemare, Montréal QC.
2016 - GEL-EAU, Festival inter-glacial, Shawinigan, QC.
2015 - VOUS ËTES ICI, Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides, St Jérôme, QC.
Group exhibitions
2016 Hors usage: la temporalité des choses, Maison de la culture Côte-des-neiges, Montréal, QC.
2014 Hors usage, Atelier de l’île, Val David, QC.
2014 Art Nomade, Exposition itinerant organisé par l Atelier de l'Île, Val David, QC.
2015 EN DuO, collaboration with Paul Ballard, Centre d’exposition, Val David, QC.
2015 NONPUBLIC, Les jardin précambriens (Foundation René Drouin) Val David, QC.
2012 La Collection Loto-Québec s’expose, Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, QC.
Public art
2020 Centre d'exposition du Mont Laurier, Mont Laurier, QC. The Ghosts, commissioned exterior integration.
2019 École primaire Crawford Annexe, Verdun, QC. The Conference of the Birds.
2016 Harbour Station of Trois-Rivières, QC. La vie est l’aquarium de l’espoir, anamorphic mural.
2012-13 Bibliothèque municipal, Saint Léonard-d’Aston, QC. Rapprochements inopinées.