Éric Cardinal
Born in Drummondville, Quebec, 1977, Lives and works in Richmond, Quebec.
“Éric Cardinal’s world is populated with workshop gestures (molding, gluing, cutting, assembling), applied to common materials and materials. It is realized in dense, constructed and fragile objects. Each object – or set of objects – tells us the story of its creation and how it becomes sculpture, how a piece of wood finds a function and becomes art. One can imagine these works as Pinocchios exploring the possibilities of sculpture. Like the character in the tale, they are preoccupied with pleasure and discovery, they are intrepid about their origins. By playing with motifs and their repetitions, the artist’s sculptures and drawings are presented in a grotesque tradition that is both playful and ornamental. The works of Eric Cardinal activate in us a strange surprise, an irreverent apprehension in front of familiar and domestic things “*.
Eric Cardinal received a Master’s degree in Visual Arts from Université Laval (Québec) in 2008 and a Bachelor’s degree in Visual and Media Arts from UQÀM in 2001. Several times recipient of grants from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts, his work has been presented in many artist-run centers, museums and galleries.
* Mathieu Beauséjour – excerpt from the book Comme une sorte de surgissement