The works in this exhibition originate, in the words of the artist, in pools of colours which slowly spread and intermingle, becoming vast, uneven expanses through a difficult to control dynamic of fluids. With this series of new paintings, Dominique Gaucher abandons his usual desire to control, foresee and plan everything, reacting instead to what occurs on the canvas. Open to this loss of control, he thus forces himself at times to follow to the very end the paths he wanders down. To take liberties and to experience the unpredictable. This two-part exhibition thus shows the two sides of an approach which moves back and forth between excessiveness—blind ambition, insolence—and a reprimand of this excessiveness—divine vengeance which reveals human frailty in the face of the power of the elements. Hence the title of the exhibition, Hybris et Némésis.
Paradoxically, it is in the large paintings being shown at Expression that the humility demanded by Nemesis takes on meaning: the fear and recognition of outsized forces. And it is in the smallest works on paper being shown at Plein sud that the excesses of the goddess Hybris—fallacy, folly, arrogance—are expressed.
Plein sud and Expression are presenting the two parts of the exhibition Hybris et Némésis simultaneously.
Hybris is being shown in Longueuil, from January 21 to February 25, 2012
Opening on Saturday, January 21, to 12pm at 2pm
Némésis is being shown in St. Hyacinthe, from January 21 to March 5, 2012
Opening on Saturday, January 21, to 3pm at 5pm
Presentation by Dominique Gaucher on Saturday, January 21, at 4pm