Robert Marchessault

My paintings try to express my sense of the mystery of being in the world. These landscapes are responses to experiential moments of non-duality often occuring for me while outdoors in natural surroundings. Since the late 1970s my works have gone through a range of artistic treatments with a current focus on painting trees using distance, atmosphere, light, and textures. The images serve as quiet and thoughtful visions assisting the human compulsion to make meaning through making pictures and looking at pictures, too.

Often the sensation of momentarily loosing a sense of myself occurs in travels through open spaces. Being in deserts, mountains, forests and open fields often suggest to me that some fundamental truth underlies everything. Standing before trees I see visceral icons proclaiming a union of earth and sky.

My landscape paintings are composed from memory, rarely from on-site drawings or photographs. I use memory as a filtering agent to remove nonessential visual elements when organizing a new composition. For a painting to be complete it must call to mind my sense of no divison between form and emptiness, self and other.

Jean Baudrillard has said that in the sphere of art, every practice has exhausted itself, and that all an artist can do is "to recombine and play with the forms already produced." (Steven Best & Douglas Kellner, Postmodern Theory: Critical Interrogations. New York: The Guilford Press, NY., 1991, 128.) I am not interested in being obscure / inaccessible. Using an existing visual iconography of landscape helps me to communicate with viewers. I try to make the painted surfaces aesthetically pleasing in order to draw the viewer to my work. Employing visual devices handed down to painters over the centuries I try to elicit in the viewer a sensation that circumvents logic and reveals personal moments that brush against meaning and mystery.

1997 M.A. (mémoire / thesis), Institut ontarien d’études en sciences pédagogiques de l’Université de Toronto / Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
1978 B.F.A. (Studio), Université Concordia / Concordia University, Montréal
1975 Visual Art Diploma, Dawson College, Montréal 

2016    Foster White Galleries, Seattle
2016    Littlejohn Contemporary, Chelsea, NY
2016    McLarry Fine Art, (April Featured Artist) Santa Fe, NM
2015    Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
2014    Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver (October)
2014    Foster White Galleries, Seattle (June 5)
2013    Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal (June 29)
2013    Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, ON (May 25)
2013    Bau-Xi Galleries, Toronto (Feb. 9)
2012    Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver 
2012    Gallerie DeBellefeille, Montreal
2011    McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2011    Tanner Hill Gallery, Chattanooga, TN
2010    Bau-Xi Galleries, Toronto
2010    Gallerie DeBellefeille, Montreal
2010    Tanner Hill Galleries, Atlanta, GA
2010    McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2009    Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto
2009    Foster White Galleries, Seattle
2009    Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver
2008    Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
2008    Peter Robertson Gallery, Edmonton
2008    Bau Xi Gallery, Vancouver
2007    Gallery 225, Santa Fe, NM
2007    Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
2006     Foster White Galleries, Seattle, WA
              Bau Xi Gallery, Toronto
              Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
2005    Vanderleelie Gallery, Edmonton
              Bau Xi Gallery, Vancouver
              Gail harvey Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2004     Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
              Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto
2003     Michael Gibson Gallery, London
              Vanderleelie Gallery, Edmonton
2002     Bau Xi Gallery, Toronto
              Gail Harvey, Los Angeles
2001     Bau Xi Gallery, Vancouver
              Gail Harvey Gallery, Los Angeles
2000     Bau Xi Gallery, Toronto
1999     Gail Harvey Gallery, Los Angeles
              Michael Gibson Gallery, London, ON
1998     Bau Xi Gallery, Toronto
1996     Bau Xi Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1996     Art Gallery of Newfoundland & Labrador, St. John's, Terre Neuve / Nfld
              Gotlands Konstmuseum, Suède/Sweden
1995     Université de Toronto / University of Toronto, Justina Barnicke Gallery
1994     Bau Xi Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1991     Galerie de l’Université de Waterloo / University of Waterloo Art Gallery
1986     Gadatsy Gallery, Toronto
1981     Concordia University Art Gallery, Montréal
              Burlington Cultural Centre, Burlington, Ontario
              Gallery Brant, Oakville, Ontario
1980     Gadatsy Gallery, Toronto
1979     Gadatsy Gallery, Toronto

2013    Art Toronto, Toronto International Art Fair, (Bau-Xi Booth & Gallerie de Bellefeuille Booth)
2013    Texas Contemporary Art Fair, Oct 10-13, Tanner Hill Gallery booth.
2013    ART 13 LONDON, UK, Rebecca Hossack Galleries booth.
2013    AAF, Affrordable Art Fairs, UK & USA, Rebecca Hossack Galleries booth.
2013    artMRKT 2013, San Francisco, CA, Tanner Hill Gallery booth.
2012    Found in Translation: Highlights from the Permanent Collection, McLaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON,  curated by Jennifer Withrow.
2012    Toronto International Art Fair, (Bau-Xi Booth & Gallerie de Bellefeuille Booth)
2011    Dallas Art Fair,  TX (Tanner Hill Galleries Booth)
2011    Robert Marchessault - featured artist Nov-Dec, Tanner Hill Galleries, Chattanooga, TN
2011    Houston Art Fair, TX (Tanner Hill Galleries Booth)
2011    Art Chicago, (Tanner Hill Galleries Booth)
2011    Stewart Galleries, Boise, ID
2011    Tanner Hill Galleries, Chattanooga, TN
2011    Visons from the East, Cumberland Galleries, Nashville, TN
2010    Toronto International Art Fair, Canada (Bau-Xi Galleries & De Bellefeuille Booths)
2010    Unite with Art, Maynard's Auction House, Vancouver, BC
2009    Arboreal, Durham Public Art Gallery, Durham, ON
2009    Art With Heart, Casey House, Toronto
2009    Nature, Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
2008    Big Canvas, Wallace Galleries, Calgary Alberta
2008    Art with Heart, Casey House, Toronto
2007    Art 2007, Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
2007    Art With Heart, Casey House, Toronto
2007    The Art of Nature, (in conjunction with the Green Living Show) Ap. 27-29, Exhibition Place, Toronto
2007    Josef Bernhard & Robert Marchessault, 2 Person Show, Gail Harvey Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2006    Art 2006, Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
2006    Toronto International Art Fair
2005    Re-presenting Representation VII, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, New York
2005    Art Chicago 2005, Chicago, IL
2005    Art 2005, Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
2004    Art 2004, Gallerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
2004    Toronto International Art Fair
2003    Toronto International Art Fair
2003    PASTA Group Exhibition, Palm Springs CA, Merrill Lynch Buiulding.
2003    The Artist Voice in Landscape - Group Show at McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM,
              Else Chapman, Donna Clair, Joyce Dant, Linda Glover Gooch, Peter Hagen, Robert Marchessault
2002    Toronto International Art Fair
2001    Social Consciousness in Canadian Art, J.M. Barnicke Art Gallery , U of Toronto
2001    Inspiration From A Desert: Three Painters In The Mojave, Jane Culp * Robert Marchessault * Terry Millikan 
             Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA Sept 1 - Nov 11
2001    A Room With A View, Michael Gibson, London, ON
2001    Toronto International Art Fair
2000    Faculty Exhibition - Georgian College, Helen and Arch Brown Centre for the Arts,
2000    2000 Bugs, Bau Xi Gallery, Toronto
1998    Faculty Exhibition - Georgian College, Helen and Arch Brown Centre for the Arts,
1998    Working Drawings, Finished Works, Bau Xi Gallery Toronto
1997    Georgian College Design & Visual Arts Faculty Exhibit, McLaren Art Centre
1997    Lumieres de Paris, Toronto
1996    Destinations, Bau Xi Gallery, Vancouver
1996    Oh! Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
1995    Contemporary Landscapes, Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery
1995    Hawksbridge & Marchessault, Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery
1993    Kanada - Gotland '93, Gotland's Konstmuseum, Sweden
1993    Landscape Painters, Bau Xi Gallery, Toronto
1992    Facutly Exhibition, Georgian College School of Design & Visual Arts, Owen Sound & Barrie, ON
1992    Two Escarpments, Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, Owen Sound, ON & FGK Gallery & Gotland's Konstmuseum Sweden
1992    Canadian Artists At Brucebo, Gotland's Konstmuseum
1991    Political Landscapes No. 2, Sacred & Secular Sites, Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery & The Ojibway Cultural Centre at Manitoulin Island
1991    Red, White and Black, Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, ON
1991    Urban Refugees, The John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto & The Durham Art Gallery, Durham ON.
1990    Artists And The Environment, A.G.O. Rental Gallery
1990    ViewPoints, MacDonald Stewart Gallery, Guelph, ON
1990    Notes From Eden, Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery
1989    Political Landscapes, No. 1, Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery & The Royal Canadian Academy, Toronto
1988    Landscapes On Paper, Gadasty Gallery, Toronto
1987    Flowers, Gadatsy Gallery, Toronto
1986    Hagan, Hartman, Cullen & Marchessault, Gadasty Gallery
1984, 83    Faculty Exhibitions, Georgian College, Barrie
1982    Faculty Exhibition, Sherdian College, Oakville, ON
1982    Group Of Painters, Gallery Stratford, Stratford, ON
1982    Group Painting Show, Robert McLauglin Art Gallery, Oshawa, ON
1979    Cullen & Marchessault, Gairloch Gallery, Oakville, ON
1978, 79    Juried Group Exhibition, Burlington Cultural Centre
1978    CONSTAT, Musè du Quèbec, Ville de Quèbec
1978    Four Person Exhibition, Concordia University Art Gallery

Canada Council, Art Bank Hart House, University of Toronto University of Montreal Mclaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON The Irving Collection, Halifax Xerox Canada Royal Bank The Financial Post Princess Margaret Hospital McLean Hunter Imperial Oil Nissan Canada Deloite Haskins & Sels Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery Ernst & Young Superior Propane Hewlett Packard Brucebo Foundation, Sweden Dept. of Foreign Affairs Bell Canada Whistler Resorts Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Random Access Multimedia Trimark Funds Inc. Random Access Multimedia - Toronto Ascona Management Inc. Esso Resources Hudson's Bay Co. Atari Sun Life Lee Co. Canada Packers Granit Club, Toronto Ontario Medical Association General Electric, Canada MDS Laboratories Dean Witter, New York Ward Beck Hotel Inter-Continental Marathon Realty Co. Ltd. OMERS Descon Rothchilds Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery Templeton Management Gerling Global Life Ins. Co. Windrush Corp. LYV Steel, Cleveland Canada Life Assurance Co. Toyota Canada MacLean Forstrom & Jackson Polygon TransAlta Catalysis Group Adalstein Brown TRCF Productions Big Firm II Productions Ltd

2000 Conseil du Canada / Canada Council.
1999 Conseil des arts de l’Ontario / Ontario Arts Council
Artiste en résidence – Parc national Joshua Tree, Californie / Artist in residence - Joshua Tree Ntl. Park, California
1997 Conseil des arts de l’Ontario / Ontario Arts Council
1995 Conseil des arts de l’Ontario / Ontario Arts Council
Conseil des arts de l’Ontario / Ontario Arts Council
1994 Conseil des arts de l’Ontario / Ontario Arts Council
1993 Conseil des arts de l’Ontario / Ontario Arts Council
Institut suédois / Swedish Institute
1992 Fondation Brucebo, Suède / Brucebo Foundation, Sweden
1990 Fondation Canada-Scandinavie / Canadian Scandinavian Foundation
1981, 87, 90 Conseil des arts de l’Ontario / Ontario Arts Council
1978 Elizabeth T. Greenshields

2004 Robert Marchessault - New Paintings, Catalogue d'exposition / Exhibition, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal
2003 Ephemeros, Paintings by Robert Marchessault, 16 pages
1997 MEEHAM, Brian, The Illusion of Silence, pour exposition individuelle à la Bau Xi Gallery / for a solo exhibition at Bau Xi Gallery, Toronto.
1995 WENGER, Rhona, Configurations, Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, ON
1992 ÖDIN, Hanne, Kanadensiskt, Brucebo Stipendiater från Kanada 1972-92, Gotland's Konstmuseum, Suède/ Sweden
1992 MARCHESSAULT, Robert Two Escarpments, The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario.
1991 HOGBIN, Stephen & Blake DEBASSIGE, Political Landscapes No. 2, Sacred And Secular Sites, The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario.
MARCHESSAULT, Robert, Red White & Black, The Tom Tomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario.
1990 ANDREAE, Janice, Notes From Eden, The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario.
Art Gallery Exhibitions Catalogue, Université de Waterloo / University of Waterloo
1989 HOGBIN, Stephen, Political Landscapes No.1, The Saugeen Press.
1981 ELDER, Allen, Robert Marchessault, Landscapes 1978 - 1981, The Burlington Cultural Centre

1995 Georgian College, Let's Talk, 15 minutes.
1994 Georgian College, The Great Lakes Insitute Of Marine Technology, 10 minutes.
1993 Umberwood Creative Media, John Boyle The Canadologist, 28 minutes.
Umberwood Creative Media, The Ceramic Sculpture of Jim Thomson, 28 minutes.
1992 Umberwood Creative Media, Two Chairs, performance par/by Judy Lowry, 10 minutes.
Umberwood Creative Media, Winter Studio, 18 minutes.
The Toronto Cultural Affairs Dept. Public Art At MetroCentre, 53 minutes.
The Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada and The Dept. of Chemistry at McGill University, Attack Of The Cellulose Degrading Enzymes, 3 minutes.
Georgian College, The Morse Code, 30 minutes.
The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Georgian Bay, Bluewater Visions, 30 minutes.
1991 Georgian College, Six Printmakers, 30 minutes.
Georgian College, Allen Smutylo, Printmaker, 28 minutes.
1990 Georgian College, Notes From Eden, 30 minutes.
1989 Georgian College, Harold Klunder, The Owen Sound Self Portrait, 28 minutes.
1987 Georgian College, John Miecznikowski, A Portrait In Bronze, 40 minutes.
1986 The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, The Painted Room, 15 minutes.

1992-93 Two Escarpments, exposition d’échange entre FGK artist's co-op gallery (Gotland, Suède) et la Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery / exchange exhibit between FGK artist's co-op gallery, Gotland, Sweden and The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery.
1992 Canadian Artists At Brucebo, 20 Years, Gotland Konstmuseum, Suède / Sweden
1991 Urban Refugees, exposition de groupe à la John B. Aird Gallery (Walter’s Falls, Ontario) / group show, John B. Aird Gallery, Walter's Falls, Ontario.
Red, White & Black, exposition Portfolio `91 à la Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery / The Portfolio '91 exhibtion at the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery.
1989 Notes From Eden, Gender & Landscape, co-currator at The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery. 

2001 Artist Presentation on Own Work, Art a La Carte, Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California.
1999 CyberExam - a First Look, This is IT'99, College Boreal, Sudbury, Ontario.
1998 Adapting Gantt Charts For A New Online Course Interface, League for Innovation Conference, Miami.
Museum Web Sites and Art Education, ICTE ‘98 Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1997 Skunkworks, creating a team to push multimedia design, IT’97, Niagara College, Ontario.
Cooperative Multimedia Development, ECOO’97, Toronto.
1996 Open Learning at The Maricopa Colleges and Georgian College, College Association for Language and Literacy, CALL ‘96.
Searching Strategies Using the WWW, Michener Institute.
The visual arts & the influence of the WWW. Guest Lecture, Ontario College of Art, Toronto.
1995 Multimedia Games, A Paradigm For Learning, Instructional Technology Conference, St. Lawrence College.
1993 Radio Gotland, "Gotland Right Now", 18 septembre 1993.
Painting As A Career, The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery.
1992 ECOO '92, 13th Annual Confrence, DeskTop Video Production Using A Video Toaster .
1991 Vision & Invention, University of Waterloo.
Urban Refugees, John B. Aird Gallery.
Red White & Black March 10, The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery
1991, Radio Interview re. Urban Refugees CBC 740 Toronto.
1981, 82, 85, 91 Interviews sur/on Radio Canada.
1998 "Museum WebSites and Art Education", The Fifteenth International Conference on technology and Education (Proceedings), University of Texas at Arlington, p. 291-293.
1994 "Art Capital Of The American Southwest", Art Bulletin, no. 59, vol. 11, octobre 1994, p. 23.
1993 "The Brucebo Atelier On Gotland", Art Bulletin, aout/septembre 1993.

2000 Annual Juried Open Competion, Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario
1999 Fine Arts Scholarship Exhibition, Georgian College & McLaren Art Centre, Owen Sound, Ontario.
1995 Fine Arts Scholarship Show, Georgian College, Owen Sound, Ontario.
1989 Chi Cheemaun Exhibition, Owen Sound, Ontario.

BOUCHARD, Gilbert A. "Old Trees may be steeped in symbolism, but they exist only in artist's imagination", Edmonton Journal, May 27, 2005
BOUCHARD, Gilbert A. "Marchessault lets viewer fill in details", Edmonton Journal, July 18, 2003, page E6
Elizabeth Greenshields Grantees News, Volume 8, Issue 2, Oct. 9, 2003, p.4 & 8.
PARKINSON, Tess, Scene Magazine, April 17, 2003, pg. 24, Stillness prevails at Michael Gibson Gallery, by
BOUCHARD Gilbert A. "Marchessault lets viewer fill in details", Edmonton Journal, July 18, 2003, p E6
LINIIMAA, Saara, Elizabeth Greenshields Grantees News, vol. 8, Issue 2, Oct. 9, 2003, p.4, 8
GRAHAM, Adam, "Painting With PASTA" Desert Sun, Palm Springs, August 29, 2001
DUFFY, Jeane, "Master Painters of the World", International Artist, Dec/Jan 2001, issue 16, p 120
"Robert Marchessault - Visions From The Fast Lane", What's Hanging, Brentwood, California, Feb 2001, p 87.
"Gallery exposes 2000 bugs", Toronto Star, 6 janvier 2000, p. G5.
DAULT, Gary Michael, "Gallery Going - 2000 Bugs at the Bau-Xi", Globe & Mail, 8 janvier 2000, p. R10.
Public, no. 18, Public Access, University of Toronto
COULSON, Sandra, "Lost in Landscapes", London Free Press, 18 avril 1999, p. D1.
HANNA, Deirdre, " Working drawings produce finished works", Now Magazine, 7 août, 1998.
HANNA, Deirdre "Nuclear terror drives timely landscapes", Now Magazine, 4 septembre 1997, vol. 17, no. 1, p. 87.
Art Bulletin, no. 61 vol.12, fevrier-mars 1995, p. 26
KÖRNER, Helene, "Dandka keramiker, kanadensiska målare och ryska fotografer", Gotlands Allenda, 18 septembre 1993, p. Kultur 10.
"What's On", Toronto Star, 13 mai 1993, p. W8, tableau reproduit / reproduction of painting Duckweed & Beaverpond.
NILSSON, Stina L., "Klintar - i Kanada och på Gotland", Gotlands Tidningar, 23 septembre 1992, p. Kultur 12.
BAXTER, Mary, "Exhibition Combines Two Worlds", Sun Times, Owen Sound, 12 septembre 1992.
"Ett nöte som fortsätter att bära frukt", Gotlands Tidningar, 1er août 1992.
"Brucebo stipendiat 20 - årsjubilerar", Gotlands Allehanda, 1er août 1992, p. Kultur 11,
HOGBIN, Stephen A History Of Interventions, 1991, The Ginger Press, p. 17.
TAYLOR, Kate, "Art About", The Globe & Mail, 12 avril 1991.
ALGIE, Jim, "Video Art Offers Link", Sun Times, Owen Sound, 2 fevrier 1991.
"Robert Marchessault ... Back Road ...", London Magazine, octobre 1991, p. 86.
REYNOLDS, Shanon, "Visions and Inventions", Imprint Magazine, 11 janvier 1991.
GILLESPIE, James, "Works Represent Diverse Origins Of Artists", The Durham Chronicle, Durham, 8 mai 1991, p. A3.
ALGIE, Jim, "Artist Expresses Language Of The Land", Sun Times, Owen Sound, 2 fevrier 1991.
HANNA, Deirdre, "Winds Of Change", Now Magazine, Toronto, 7 juin, 1990, p 142.
ALGIE, Jim, "Chatsworth Artist...", Sun Times, Owen Sound, 7 juin 1990.
ALGIE, Jim, "Exhibition Touches On Contemporary Life", Sun Times, Owen Sound, 20 avril 1990.
JOHNSON, Eric, "Toronto's Easle Belt" Concordia University Magazine, septembre 1979