Nicolas Fleming • Je n’écrirai pas beaucoup de livres

Vernissage: Thursday May 2 at 6 pm
Exhibition: May 3 to 25

The McClure Gallery is pleased to present the recent work of Nicolas Fleming. The exhibition, Je n’ecrirai pas beaucoup de livres, brings together a host of objects created, modified and/or apropriated that fluctuate between painting and sculpture, including at times a touch of the performative. The artist approaches the space of the gallery in much the same way as he does the materials with which he works – transforming and manipulating it in order to continue to explore the issues and questions that preoccupy him.

Those pre-occupations – both spatial and aesthetic – emerge from experiences that consitute his daily life – working on renovation projects, mounting exhibitions or other types of manual labour. Through his artistic interventions, Fleming launches a kind of commentary upon the formal rules and ideologies surrounding the act of painting, proposing new paths of research and solutions. For instance, he considers every step in the process as an end in itself. His work is in constant metamorphosis; he abandons each element only at the point where, in his view, it appropriately participates in his reflections.

The works in the McClure Gallery exhibition underline the importance Fleming accords to the physical reality of his materials as well as to the act of creation itself. Moreover, he interacts very consciously with the specific characteristics of the exhibition space, either working with those specificities in a kind of dialogical relationship or intervening to alter the space physically to better serve his aesthetic objectives. The unique aspect of Fleming’s installations, which readily evoke references to daily labour, provokes our reflection upon the gestures and decisions inherent in creation.

Nicolas Fleming holds a Masters in Visual and Media Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal (2007) and a BFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University (2001). His work has been the subject of exhibitions at L’Écart (Rouyn-Noranda), at Eastern Edge (St.-John’s Newfoundland), at Galerie de l’UQAM (Montréal), at Caravansérail (Rimouski) and at Galerie Trois Points (Montréal). In July 2013, his work will be shown at Galerie Trois Points as part of a group exhibition in the context of Extreme Painting.