source: craigscottgallery

Julie Tremblay was born in Quebec City in 1972, and resided for some time in Copenhagen before relocating to New York City in spring 2010. She pursued her art studies between 1989 and 1997. In 1994 she was admitted to Concordia University as a visiting student in the photography department after having studied at l’Université Laval in Québec City for 2 years. During that time, she was invited to participate in various exhibitions in Montreal and Quebec, one of them being “Young Photography” at Galerie Dazibao in Montreal, which showcased the year’s selection of young, up-and-coming artists. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Université Laval in Quebec, she moved to New York City in 1995 to pursue a Masters degree in Fine Arts at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, from which she graduated with a Mention of Excellence in 1997. During the years at Pratt her focus shifted away from photography to sculpture and installation. In the following years, she taught sculpture, 2-D design and 3-D design (fine arts foundation classes) at Seton Hall University and William Paterson University, both in New Jersey.

Tremblay has had a full 2008-2010 exhibition schedule, including two largescale performance-art events. For 2008, Tremblay created a series of works called “Reflections” that were exhibited in two coordinated solo shows, one at Craig Scott Gallery in May/June and the other at Galleri Rebecca Kormind in October. Also in fall 2008, Craig Scott Gallery exhibited six Tremblay’s works at upArt Contemporary Art Fair at Toronto’s premier art hotel, the Gladstone Hotel; five of her works soar just below the Gladstone’s ceilings in the lobby and up the main staircase to the second floor, while a sitting figure joined café-goers in the hotel’s coffee bar. From January to end of March 2010, she was one of 16 artists selected for a major exhibition, “Re-creation”, inaugurating Ogilvy New York’s new building, contributing four works. In Spring 2010, she participated in a group exhibition at Andipa Gallery, London, UK, in conjunction with the UK release of a book called Urban Interventions. In mid-June 2010, she opens with a solo show called “Interstices” at Galerie Lacerte Art Contemporain in Quebec City.

In 2008 and 2009, Tremblay created wearable or portable sculptures for two multi-person installation and performance pieces in Copenhagen. In 2008, she created 26 pieces of “wearable art” for a fashion event called “Vision CPH” in Copenhagen’s annual Fashion Week; Tremblay’s installation, called “Storks and Eagles,” consisted of 24 mannequins wearing Bossa jeans and also, from hips to the top of their heads, clothing and headwear created by Tremblay from the same cast-off industrial sheet metal that she uses to create the “Reflections” sculptures; two actors, also wearing Tremblay-created sculptured clothing, interacted with the mannequins, making the installation something of a performance piece as well. The sculptured clothing morphed into bird-like shapes, turning the installation of the mannequins and actors into a kind of humanoid aviary. In 2009, she co-created a choreographed performance, “Same As It Ever Was”, piece in Copenhagen’s main square, which involved life-size molecular-like sculptures created by Tremblay from black umbrellas stitched together. Filling the square during one of its busiest time of days, actors manipulated the umbrella-structures in movements choreographed by Tremblay’s collaborator. The work was based on ideas drawn from fractal geometry.

Through the use of the human form, symbolism and narration, Tremblay’s work is a metaphor for essential and existential subjects that relate to human life in our world today. While some works address behaviors inherent to human nature, others are inspired by cultural behaviors that sometime seem to be in contradiction with human nature. Part of this lies within a theme she is currently engaging, which is the exploration of the meaning of modernity, both inside and outside of art. For Tremblay, the meaning of modernity partly resides in the fact that much of the western world has been “desacralized.” Nearly everything that, at some point, has had a sacred value has been alienated from our lives. This extends to the world of visual arts. Artists no longer need talent (in the technical-aesthetic sense) to make art and one does no longer need to be artistically skilled in order to become famous. Tremblay sees parallels with general social tendencies. As she notes, “One may be spiritual without being religious; we value experience over faith; we want to live rather then believe.” For Tremblay, these are not criticisms, only observations.

Tremblay looks to societies that not yet experienced such extensive desacralizing change in their culture. She observes these societies and their inner workings, as well as the difference in the function of the individual in the society and the meaning of identity and individuality. She observes places where the identity of the individual is somewhat “lost” to the profit of the collectivity now being affected by globalization. Says Tremblay, “They want to welcome all things western while retaining their culture, values and beliefs. East meets West is, to me, one of the most fascinating concepts in our world today.”

Tremblay often uses untraditional materials, such as earth, salt or chicken wire, to name a few, which she feels contributes to making the symbolism of her figurative work stronger. The bodies themselves are metaphors, carriers of meaning, and carriers of stories to be invented and re-invented. In this respect, “while I always have my side of the story, it is very important for me that my work remains open to different interpretations and is laced with different layers of meaning.” One of those layers that is fundamental to her work “relates to the fact that it would be hard for me to make figurative work without thinking about the history of sculpture.” Occasional references can be found in Tremblay’s work to Egyptian, Greek and classical sculpture, “very much with a wink in the eye.”

Beyond the theme of the relationship between individual and society. Tremblay has also worked with other related themes such as survival, illusion and deception. In every Tremblay work, “ attempt to find a balance between concept and medium, so that the form alone stands for itself.”
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source: brookfield

suas obras não são apenas estudos sobre movimentos. A artista também procura questionar o que é o ser humano hoje, vivendo no mundo moderno. As formas das esculturas assim como seus simbolismos representam metáforas de temas sociais, como a tensão entre indivíduo, sociedade e inconsciente coletivo.

Tremblay, que atualmente mora em Nova York, já realizou exposições em galerias nos Estados Unidos, Canadá e Londres. Além do metal reciclado, ela também trabalha com cera e telas de galinheiro, entre outros.