ARTIST STATEMENT
EXHIBITION HISTORY
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Statement
Exhibitions
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Artist Statement -



Involved in the visual arts for more than twenty years, my work includes abstract painting, drawing, and occasionally installation art and photography. My approach is serial and cumulative and involves multiplication, superimposition, and/or repetition. My images, gleaned in the course of my travels and intellectual wanderings, are heterogeneous in origin (animals, artefacts, scientific literature, etc.), and I blend them in a systematic and formal way until the possible combinations have been exhausted.

My works present dream-like images where the figurative and the formal are melded together; vaguely recognizable forms emerge from a ground that appears homogeneous but whose meaning eludes us. The resulting compositions can give rise to multiple interpretations. By focusing on both ambiguity and familiarity at once—and through numerous variations—I seek to create visual spaces where various realities overlap. My goal is to convey the difficulty of being in the in-between, the oscillation, the blur, and the viewer is constantly coaxed to go there.

My interest in the “in-between” goes back to my teenage years when I was studying a text by the philosopher Blaise Pascal in which he writes, “Car enfin, qu’est-ce que l’homme dans la nature ? Un néant à l’égard de l’infini, un tout à l’égard du néant, un milieu entre rien et tout.” [Ultimately, then, what is man in nature? A nothingness in relation to the infinite, an all in relation to nothingness, a middle between nothing and everything.] These words have always stuck in my mind. The ambiguous position of human beings in the universe fascinates me; we never stop trying to find our place, yet we never manage to do so (whether individually or as a species). Because we exist between opposite poles (good-evil, light-darkness, peace-violence, knowledge-ignorance, and so on), we are forever repositioning ourselves, rethinking situations. On closer examination, we realize that there is no single answer to our questions: every response oscillates between two truths, two perceptions. My pictures are interpretations of this oscillation, between the certainty of recognizing a form and the experience of seeing it dissolve before our eyes.

The complete structure is never shown in my work. Through abstraction, I wish to heighten the elements of surprise and instability so as to bring into question the very notion of perception. My images strive for a quiet poetry, one that leaves subtle mnemonic traces at the border between the known and the unknown. That said, I aim not so much to destabilize the viewer as to explore the power of the mind and the shortcuts it can take to resolve a problem or a puzzle.







Artist Exhibitions



SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2014 Trames – Arts Sutton, Sutton, Qc
2014 L’œil, la forme ou l’œuf (trio)– Zéphyr, Montréal, Qc
2013 North & South of the Border – Artamo gallery, Santa-Barbara, CA USA
2013 Trames et Structures – Centre Culturel Dallaire, La Pocatière, Qc

2012 …TRAMES… - Zéphyr, Montréal, Qc

2011:
* Group Show - Galerie Zephyr, Montreal, Canada
* Migrations - Galerie Wilder & Davis, Montreal, Canada

In 2010:
* Project A5 - Artamo Gallery, Santa-Barbara, CA USA
* Itineraires - Georges Laoun - Montreal, Quebec Canada
april 5th - May 1st, 2010

2009
*November 2009 - De l'illusion du sens - Galerie Port-Maurice, Montreal, Canada
*August 2009 - Inner outer Circles - Artamo Gallery, Santa Barbara, Ca
*May 2009 - Entre Nous/Between Us - Galerie La Salamandre, Montreal, Canada
*March 2009 - Inner outer Circles - Galerie Luz, Montreal, Canada

2008
September - Paintings - G. Laoun, Montreal, Canada

2006
* French General Consulate in Montreal, Canada - January 2006

2005
* Gallery International, Baltimore, MD
* Cafe Tartine, 7385 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
2004
*Before the Fall - Roberts Art Gallery, Santa Monica, CA USA
*Series of Layers,OCCCA, California, USA.
*Et tout a-t-il une fin..., Galerie Port-Maurice, Montreal, Canada.

2003
*Configuration(s), Centre Culturel de Verdun, Québec, Canada
*Espaces Pluriels, Galerie Konrad Monter, Meerbusch (Dusseldorf), Germany

2002
*Fragments et Fractions,Maison de la Vie Associative. Béziers, France.
*Regarder Ailleurs, La Seigneurie Gallery. Châteauguay, Québec.
*Espaces Fragmentaires, Médias Forum. Béziers, France.
*Ligne - Série IV (De la nécessité d’avoir un corps),French Consulate in Montréal. Montréal, Québec.
2000
*Peintures, dessins 1998 – 2000, GeorgesLaoun, Montréal, Québec.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2007
painting and poetry - Artamo Gallery, Santa Barbara, Ca
Subset - Crussel Fine Art, Orange, CA

2006
* Pul'ART 2006, Le Mans, France. 24-28 May 2006

2005
* Les iles inventées, Maison de la culture, Montreal, Canada
* Artamo Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
* Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA

2004
*Perceptions, OCCCA, Santa Ana, CA, USA

2003
*Gallery International (July 2003), Baltimore, MD, USA
*Les Femmeuses 2003, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Longueuil, Quebec.
*First Anniversary show. Gallery International, Baltimore, MD
*Trio. Arts Sutton. Sutton, Qc, Canada
*G. Rioux/F.Issaly. Galerie Renee-Blain, Brossard, Qc. Canada

2002
*Nouveaux Artistes. Galerie du Musee des Beaux Arts de Montreal, Quebec.
*Les Femmeuses 2002. Pratt & Whitney Canada – Longueuil, Québec.

1996
*Incarnation. Belgo Building. Montréal, Québec.
*Femmes d’Art. Isart. Montréal, Québec.
*Art de Femmes. Galerie des Foufs. Montréal, Québec.

1995
*Agreement. Duo, Galerie des Foufs. Montréal, Québec.
*JAM. Belgo Building. Montréal, Québec.

1994
*Echo d’une génération II. Galerie du SAC. Montréal, Québec.
...

Artist Publications




In Vie des Arts <215
"Logique car contradictoire" par Bernard Levy
http://www.francoiseissaly.com/articleViedesArts215.htm

* The Baltimore Sun
artist envisions in-between spaces by G. McNatt
February 10, 2005

* Exhibition Catalog
Gallery international
www.galleryinternational.com

*F. ISSALY, Et tout a-t-il une fin....
Vie des Arts n. 194, spring 2004

*Les configuration de francoise ISSALY
Aux Arts etc... RAdio Canada

*"Die linie bildet das zentrale motiv"
DMB, Dusseldorf, January, 28th, 2003

*"Franzosin sucht das Gleichgewicht"
Rheinische Post, January, 25th, 2003

*"LE MONDE DE L'IRRATIONNEL ET DE L'INTERROGATION"
l'Herault du jour, 20 juin 2002



...

Artist Collections



Private collections in
California, USA,
Maryland, USA,
Toronto, Canada,
Vancouver, Canada,
Montreal, Canada,
Quebec city, Canada,
Longueuil, Canada,
Bordeaux, France,
Toulouse, France,
Beziers,France,
Malaga, Spain,
Dusseldorf, Germany,

And Corporate:
Agisoft, Beziers, France,
Busse & Miessen, Bonn, Germany...

Artist Favorites



Personal Favorites



http://www.francoiseissaly.com ...