MICHEL DUFRESNE
Biography
Dufresne began his Fine Art training at Ćegep de Sherbrooke, graduating with a Diploma in 1977. He went on to complete a Bachelor’s in Urban Design at UQAM in 1980; and a Masters in Urban Planning at University of Montreal in 1986. For more than six years, he was a part-time Professor at the School of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture, at University of Montreal, teaching in the Urban Design Studio and Urban Planning Practices course.
Throughout his career in design and urban planning, he had consistently demonstrated his interest in Art – promoting the placement of public works into various private and institutional Master Plans. An Art enthusiast and collector for over thirty years, he was deeply involved in the art community. He served as a board member at Fonderie Darling – a Visual Arts Centre in Montreal (2019-2021). And regularly attended major contemporary art fairs – Venice Biennale, Miami Art Basel, and Art Toronto.
In 2022-23 he took a Stone Sculpture Course at Atelier SKULPT with Pierre Muro in Montreal. And continued in 2023 with a Ceramics Course with Eva Lapka in Intermediate Clay Modeling, at Centre des Arts Visuels, Westmount QC which introduced his work with exhibitions in Galerie Le 1040 and McClure Gallery in Montreal.
Dufresne was elected into the Sculptors Society of Canada in 2023. His studio is based in Montreal.
Artist Statement
For the past few years, I have devoted myself full-time to my artistic work, creating mainly stone sculptures. I am a member of SKULPT – a cooperative of sculptors in Montreal. In 2023 I was invited to a residency in Stallani, Sicily, at the site of a former stone quarry. Together with my colleague, we completed an intensive 10-day installation consisting of an assemblage of stones and volcano dust from the Etna of monumental scale on an archaeological site by the quarry.
My artistic exploration is driven by morphological forms found in the natural environment and those transformed by humans. The rounded shapes of my sculptures are composed of notches and grooves inspired by these accumulations. The stones appear to be stacked or assembled, creating a sense of imbalance: will they collapse? However, the stone stacking is, in fact, made from a single piece to articulate these unique forms.
My upcoming work – an installation of 9 sculptures consist of marble, alabaster, and steatite with glass insertions – will be showcased in May 2024 during the annual exhibition of the SKULPT group.
