Gilles Doré

Gilles Doré, the social artist, after having created and animated art workshops for thousands of children and adults (in French, English and Spanish), realises since 1997, under his original concept, hundreds of collective works of art in corporations, families, schools and public with his «Pinceau voyageur» (Travelling Paintbrush). His constant inconvenience in front of the condescending attitude of the art environment and his administrators brought him to redirect more his work towards the «real people» whom then named him social artist.

Is what he does art or not, art craft, animation, education or just marketing? Probably a little of all that and, untill they find a category to classify him, Gilles Doré lives this exciting present, feeling useful to the world. He studied at the Quebec Fine Arts School and at the UQAM (Quebec University in Montreal). He is a member of the AQÉSAP (Quebec Association of Educators Specialized in Fine Arts) and the RAAV (Visual Artists Association).

Gilles Doré, the visual artist, has participated in more than 80 solo, group exhibitions and artistics events in North America and Europe; many of his works are part of collections in large Canadian and European institutions; he received four grants from the Quebec minister of culture and the Albert-Rousseau prize in 1989. We can only see his recent work in his workshop on appointment.

Approach

G. Doré re-releases paintings on canvass inspired by subjects that talk to him. Personnages, appearing almost for the first time in his career, are justified by his recent feeling of bringing an appreciated contribution to the community. Till now, his preference was towards meditative subjects without ever the human presence neither his manifestations.

For the artist, the vision is thus larger than hominoid. The meditative motif stays but the human appears, more often nevertheless musing. «Everything talks to us but we are never listening.» The artist devoted oneself the mission to reveal modestly, simply through his paintings, a little of the messages he receives by the capability of his artist ear and sight. After an exciting journey through abstract art, etching, land art, intallations, performances, and paper low relief, it is towards a wise and renewed figuration in the classical painting on canvass that his emerging maturity is now guiding him.

Click here to view his works