Come join us for Etienne Garceau's first show in Vancouver at Z Gallery Arts!

"There is something mysterious in Etienne Garceau's paintings. Always a little veiled, women who are painted do not offer themselves immediately. They hide behind a damp veil, or reveal only a detail of their body : a mouth, a bridge of the nose, etc. This game inflames oneself. As Kant pointed out when he conjured up the fig leaf that covers Eve in the Garden of Eden: not showing everything arouses desire.

Women, great enigma, fascinate the artist. He finds their harmonious forms, and the way in which they attired herselves, captivating. If this way of not showing everything awakens senses, it is way much intense under the hand of the painter. Sensitive to the feminine condition, he was able to observe during his travels the sadly habitual speech that associates woman to property. Besides the artistic bridges that can be established between the Pop art movement and Etienne Garceau’s paintings, the link is perhaps the echo of consumerism and objectification.

Drawing from photographs, the artist paints with oils and acrylic. His relationship to matter, a vestige of his gastronomic research, allows him to oscillate between a straightforward hyperrealism and an almost gustatory game. As soon as one assimilates his past relationship to food, the wrinkled effects become thin, brittle wafers, the veiled, almost asphyxiated face has something ovate, and the orange liquid is reminiscent of a caramel just turning brown. Etienne Garceau, self-taught, offers multiple readings in his paintings." - Sandra Barre, art critic