During the pandemic, David Lafrance undertook a pictorial research linked to his desire to better understand nature without trying to dominate it.
– Éric Clément, La Presse
If nature is overexposed in today’s media and ultimately threatened in its entirety, David Lafrance opts for a relationship of proximity and coexistence. For four years, the artist has laboured to create a topographical garden that replicates the region’s geography at a reduced scale. Since beginning this project, all of his works have been inspired by this microcosm and its immediate environment. As his garden quickly eluded control (invasive species, unanticipated plant growth, and the presence of animals disrupting the initial layout), this profusion of life became the painter’s raw material. Breaking with the codes of domination and nostalgia associated with the landscape genre in Western artistic tradition, Lafrance’s paintings no longer seek to represent nature as a backdrop but rather testify to its vitality, resilience, and unpredictability.
With their visual and temporal density, the works presented in Flat Land convey the experience of a living garden: intertwined seasons, the coexistence of organic elements and studio objects, and a blurring of hierarchies. Rough brushstrokes, thick textures, and discontinuous planes resist pictorial legibility. The landscape appears fragmented, unstable, and saturated… the image of our contemporary world.
Flat Land thus questions the potential of landscape painting in an era of ecological crisis: how can we represent nature without freezing it in time? How can we bear witness without possession?
Biography
David Lafrance (b. 1976) holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Concordia University. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and biennials in Canada, the United States, and France. Recent solo exhibitions include those at the Alfred-Pellan Gallery at the Maison des arts de Laval (2024); the Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay, Montréal (2018); Galerie Hugues Charbonneau, Montréal (2014, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2025); Ceaac,Strasbourg (2015) ; Œil de Poisson, Quebec City (2014); and at the Musée régional de Rimouski (2012). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, notably at the Stewart Hall Art Gallery (2021), the Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides (2018), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2015), Œil de Poisson (2015), Art action Actuel in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (2013), and the Centre d’art L’écart in Rouyn-Noranda (2013). His works can be found in diverse collections, including those of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Hydro-Québec, Mouvement Desjardins, and the cities of Montréal and Laval.
