Joan Cullen
Biography
Artist’s Statement:
Philosophy and travel have been constants in my pictorial research but it was during a long sejour in rural France that I learned the exotic character of everyday life. Painting and drawing have become a means of attaining a quality of attention that seems to go underneath language and ground it.
One elects oneself to do this work and then it must be assumed. Certain works (“Bangkok”, “Entre Montréal et Québec”) name the places that are at once the landmarks of a permanent exile and the subject itself; others (“Champ aux marmottes”, “Hillsborough River”) wrestle with the desire to approach or even get inside the subject. Against formulas and like violence I propose with Paul Klee an endless study of the nature of nature ...
Exhibitions
“World enough and time”, Annex Art Centre, Toronto, 2004. “État des Lieux”, GAUM, Moncton, 2002 and Fondation Avicenne, Paris, 2000. “Trees and Hedges” / Land art project: Plant a traditional hedge along the arterial highway (three levels of vegetation with Acadian forest essences) Charlottetown, 2000. “Identités Hasardeuses”, Conférence “Le Monde-Le Mans”, Le Mans, 1998. “Hazardous Identities”, Guild Gallery, Charlottetown, 1997. “Points Cardinaux”, Sfax, Mahdia, Tunisie and Pornichet, France,1998. “Repères quotidiens”, Prieuré de Vivoin, France 1995. “A Hedge Where Once a Wall” / Land Art Project, Berlin , 1994. “Exotique rural”, Le Mans, France ,1993. “Rencontre Canada-Tunisie”, Carthage. Colloquium at l’Université de Tunis: “Art et le spectateur”, invitation from Canadian Embassy. “Champs Animaliers”, Angers, France. Interkuli, Köln, Germany, 1992.
StudieS
Maîtrise de Philosophie Esthétique, La Sorbonne, Paris, Mémoire: Discours critique et oeuvres d’art, Gilbert Lascault, J.-F. Lyotard. Licence de Philosophie, La Sorbonne. Paris Bachelor of Arts, Carleton University, Ottawa
workshops
-Andrew Chung, Chinese Brush Painting, Toronto -Atelier de la Grande Chaumière, Paris -Universidad Tadao Lozano, Bogotà. -Ottawa School of Art and in studio with Norman Hall
Film Documentaries
Poésie en peinture/Painted Poetry, directed by Monique Leblanc: Creation from an exchange between Joan Cullen and Herménégilde Chiasson, 2000. Norman Hall, directed by Janet Best, 1997. How do you enjoy Life? directed by Nicole Balderson, 2001.
Work in private, corporate collections and in the Musée de Tessé, Le Mans, France
More details on Joan Cullen HERE and HERE. Video HERE.