Biography
Sophie Lebeuf was born in Chicoutimi and studied interdisciplinary visual art at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, enabling her to explore several media and to experiment with incorporating bauxite into her paintings. Noteworthy encounters with Angémil Ouellet, Paul Laforest, Jérémie Giles and Jean-Paul Lapointe, who became a true mentor, were decisive for her artistic path. Her work has been shown in Canada, Belgium and France, particularly in art galleries and as part of major thematic events.
Since 2003, Lebeuf’s work has been the subject of nearly a dozen solo exhibitions and been included in nearly forty group shows. Her work can be found in major collections such as those of Arsenal Média and Rio Tinto Alcan in Montreal. Other works are on permanent display in various public spaces in Saguenay.
This multidisciplinary artist has been the recipient of several grants, awards and distinctions over the course of her career. Her work, signed Sofia, is on permanent exhibition at the Galerie du Vieux Saint-Jean in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and at Galerie-5 in Jonquière, which is both an exhibition venue and a studio, enabling her to offer introductory and other artistic workshops to a broad public.
Artist’s statement
Acrylic paint has always been Sophie Lebeuf’s preferred medium. Very early on she explored the idea of incorporating bauxite, the principal ore in aluminum, into her work as a pigment. After several experiments to test bauxite’s sturdiness and its reaction to light, cold, heat and humidity on a variety of canvases and papers, she created a palette of colours deliberately limited in red oxide and blue cobalt. This experimentation, which underpins her entire body of work, made it possible for her to stand out by using an ore whose colour predominates in Saguenay, with its aluminum industry in particular. It is a way to record her belonging there.
Because her love of horses developed at the same time as her passion for painting, it was clear that horses would be her preferred theme. From 1997 to 2002 she created a series, part-way between hyperrealism and phantasmagoria, whose orangey-red tone brings a peculiar light to the colouration animating the drawing while enhancing the atmosphere.
The colours and the pigment, with its grain, shape the forms by leaving space for light while giving off a powerful sense of mystery. This is how Lebeuf’s conceptual work comes to life, with the relations between its masses and its contrasts, organised around fragility and strength, sensitivity and power, thereby suggesting an approach for reading each work. Her subsequent series of paintings, illustrating the metal and its transformation by human intervention, is another fine example. The same is true of the series Animaux et crânes, Expression dansée and Coke et bauxite.
C.V.
Professional training
| 2002 | Université du Québec à Chicoutimi – Diploma, Interdisciplinary Visual Art |
| 1994 | Cégep de Jonquière -Junior College Certificate, Interior Design |
Gallery representation
| 2019 | Galerie-5, Jonquière (Canada) |
| 2015 | Galerie du Vieux St-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (Canada) |
| 2003 – 2018 | Galerie d’art Jacques Lacroix, Chicoutimi (Canada) |
Public collections (Quebec)
| 2022 | Arsenal-Média, Montreal |
| 2022 | Rio Tinto Alcan, Montreal |
| 2015 | Technosoude Inc., Jonquière |
| 2010 | Clinique de médecine générale, Jonquière |
| 2006 | Théâtre du Palais Municipal de La Baie |
Solo exhibitions (Canada)
| 2023 | La bauxite au cœur de l’art, Rio Tinto port facilities, La Baie |
| 2022 | Coke et Bauxite, Galerie-5, Jonquière |
| 2018 | Allégorie, Galerie du Vieux Saint-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu |
| 2016 | Rétrospective, CGI, Saguenay |
| 2014 | Parad’Horse, Laoun, Saint-Denis St., Montreal |
| 2014 | Paradoxe, Galerie Art-0, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu |
| 2011 | Rétrospective, Rio Tinto Alcan global headquarters, Montreal |
Group exhibitions (since 2004)
| 2023 | Signature – collective exhibition, Odyssée des Bâtisseurs, Alma |
| 2023 | Proprement sale, artists’ collective, Galerie-5, Jonquière |
| 2023 | Signature – art contemporain, Galerie-5, Jonquière |
| 2023 | Inspirations féminines, Galerie du Vieux St-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu |
| 2023 | Sémantique, Galerie-5, Jonquière |
| 2022 | Syncope, Galerie-5, Jonquière |
| 2019 | Mondes imaginaires, thematic exhibition – Espace contemporain, Quebec City |
| 2019 | With the collective Bronze, Art et Fusion – Centre des loisirs, Inverness |
| 2019 | Internation’Art, 9th edition, Georges-Henri-Lévesque library, Roberval |
| 2018 | Bestiaire, thematic exhibition – Espace contemporain, Quebec City |
| 2017 | Deux temps… Deux mouvements, Galerie Loft Gisèle Boulianne, Quebec City |
| 2015 | Cat show, Galerie du Vieux Saint-Jean, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu |
| 2014 | Sofia & Mika, duo, Galerie Art-O, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu |
| 2014 | Sept femmes/sept passions, Galerie Espace, Plateau Mont-Royal, Montreal |
| 2012 | Galerie du Presbytère, Berre-les-Alpes, France |
| 2012 | Exposition Internationale de Jean-Paul Lapointe – Chicoutimi |
| 2011 | Exhibition, Galerie Espace, Plateau Mont-Royal, Montreal |
| 2010 | Exhibition, Georges-Henri-Lévesque library, Roberval |
| 2008 | International Exhibition, Brouage, France |
| 2008 | International Exhibition, Halle-aux-Draps, Belgium |
| 2004 to 2021 | Rencontre des Arts, Dextraze pavilion on the Royal Military College, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu |
| 2004 to 2012 | Rendez-vous des artistes, Saint-Léonard, New Brunswick |
Creations and projects (Québec)
| 2021 | Fresco, History Corridor at the Rio Tinto port facilities, La Baie |
| 2014 | Fresco, Jonquière public library |
| 2010 | Large formats on the theme of sports, Le Stade, Jonquière |
| 2008 | Fresco, Hydro-Québec, Brisé and LG4, James Bay |
| 2006 | Fresco Thérèse et Jos, balcony refurbishment at the Théâtre du Palais Municipal, La Baie |
| 2005 | Fresco, Le Deauville, Chicoutimi |
| 2003 | Fresco, Hydro-Québec, LA1, James Bay |
Awards and distinctions
| 2023 | Honorary President, 10th Symposium d’art contemporain de Rivière-Éternité (Québec) |
| 2023 | Honorary Mention, Mondial Art Academia (juried) |
| 2021 | Mention and distinction in painting, Rencontre des Arts de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (juried) |
| 2021 | Silver Medal, Académie des Arts Sciences et Lettres de Paris (juried) |
| 2019 | Chevalier académicienne, Mondial Art Academia (juried) |
| 2018 | Award for excellence in portraiture for the work « Dreamcatcher », 6th edition Grande compétition internationale d’œuvres d’art, Césure (juried) |
| 2016 | Certificate, Gala Reconnaissance CNE, Centre national d’exposition de Jonquière |
| 2016 | Bronze Medal, Académie des Arts Sciences et Lettres de Paris (juried) |
| 2016 | Selected by a jury of peers for the Salon des artistes du monde with the association Com2Art, Salon du Vieux Port, Cannes |
| 2015 | Selected by a jury of peers for the Salon SNBA, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris |
Press kit (non-exhaustive)
Print press and art magazines
- Le Quotidien, Progrès-Dimanche, Le Nouvelle Hebdo, Le Lac Saint-Jean, Le Plein Jour, Le Manic; AL13 le magazine de l’aluminium, Magasin’art, etc.
Radio / Television and Multimedia
- ICI Radio-Canada; MaTV; NousTV; TVA; Podcast ArtZoom, Art Total Multimédia.
Documentary Film
- Bâtisseurs d’hier à demain, for the 85th anniversary of the Rio Tinto Vaudreuil plant
