Artist Statement

At the heart of Julie Trudel’s pictorial practice is the following hypothesis: creating work within specific procedural constraints can potentially generate remarkable new visual effects. She experiments with the properties of painting through simple work processes and self-imposed limitations established at the start of each new project. These vary from a restricted choice of palette or materials to working within a predetermined technique or compositional framework. In this way, Trudel situates herself within the realm of reflective and conceptual practices that focus on the procedural mechanics and perceptual intangibilities of painting. Her research extends to painting as a multidisciplinary practice, engaging in a study of the materials and methodologies that define painterly concerns. It’s an approach that lends new currency to traditional ideas of abstraction through works that seek to renew the technical and perceptual limits of painting, as much through its medium and presentation as in its affective result.

Biography

Julie Trudel holds an MFA from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and has exhibited across Canada, Europe, and the United States, including a solo exhibition at NARS Foundation, Brooklyn (2018), the group exhibition Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2017), and The Painting Project at Galerie de l’UQAM (2013). In addition to being awarded numerous research and creation grants as well as artist residencies across Canada and abroad, Trudel was a two-time finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition (2011, 2012) and winner of the Joseph Plaskett Award in painting (2013). She is a Professor at UQAM in Montreal, where she lives and works.