For the 2nd consecutive year, FIMA will be highlighting the promising talent of emerging visual artists by offering six of them a chance to show the products of their inexhaustible imagination.

MARIE-CLAIRE LANTIN
mc_lantin@hotmail.com

Biography
Passionate for computer arts and design, images and concepts, social issues and contradictions, Marie-Claire Lantin is constantly deconstructing her surroundings, via her training in photography (DEC). She is presently learning new artistic fields and exploring in the hopes to soon be able to deconstruct even more…

Artist Statement
My photographical explorations are continuously inspired by a causality linking the individual with his environment. Whether they concern social repercussions which stamp human beings or the consequences of their actions on their milieu, I manipulate the images so that the limits of representation are alleviated, thus generating visual and psychological freedom. Instability in reality guides the individual to an emotional understanding which always is rallying him to his relation with the environment.

FANNY PARENT
fannyparent@hotmail.com

Biography
Born in Quebec City, Fanny Parent completed her training in studio arts at the Cégep de Sainte-Foy in 2008, where she obtained her department’s grant for excellency. Winner of the public’s choice award at the graduating students’ exhibition, she offered the winning project as a gift to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. During her training, she was also invited to be part of Rouyn-Noranda’s cross collegial exhibition. She is currently following undergraduate studies in studio and multimedia arts at UQAM, in Montreal.

Artist Statement
On the whole, her work relies on conceptualizing and exteriorizing souvenirs. Therefore, she attempts to visually express feelings and emotions which are generally not explicit. Her desire is not to create a subjective figurative image, but rather to recall impressions that translate a certain state of mind. In order to bring the observer to question him or herself, she assembles a series of meanings and symbolic elements which are dissimilar. Her work invites spectators to a dialogue of sensitivities which places vulnerability in the foreground.

jean-nicolas
jeannicko@hotmail.com / www.jean-nicolas.ca

Biography
Painter originating from Sherbooke City, jean-nicolas now lives in the Montreal region. His first solo exhibition « Double Expression d’un soi-disant JE » drew media attention in his native region. He has obtained a bachelor's degree in Art History, and also studied studio arts and social sciences. His artistic occupations alternate between painting and writing, two dreamlands which disturb and fascinate him.

Artist Statement
My approach consists into creating a multilayered world where composite spaces are linked. Patterns suggest the idea of a continuous mouvement, a vital cycle. I describe my research as an exploration of juxtaposition, where spaces, tints and forms mix and communicate. Each work has for background a field of light in which we can feel world where mouvements take place endlessly.

MARJORIE DE CHANTAL
marjoriedezantal@hotmail.com

Biography
Starting with craft work, Marjorie de Chantal has penetrated the clay with her bare hands, causing the fragile and sensitive earth to vibrate. Influenced by dance, words and nature, she now fluctuates between painting, photography and video. She inspires herself from all those techniques to transform her gestures and let time shimmer, suspended.

Artist Statement
Add a bit of mystery to the bare bodies. Bring the consciousness and the unconsciousness to pour out the ideas they create and recreate. To let oneself carried by a swirl where nature takes one’s hands in a creative burst, as sun sheds it brightness on all things, in order to translate one’s thoughts and ideas, and put one’s being on canvas.

CHLOE DESJARDINS
chloedesjardins@hotmail.com

Biography
Chloé Desjardins holds a bachelor’s degree in Studio Arts from Concordia University. She has presented her work in various galleries, and took part in numerous artistic events in Montreal. She is active in the artistic community as a member of La Centrale gallery, trainee at the Trois Points gallery, and curator for the exhibition Art Matters. She will be following graduate studies in visual arts at UQAM, in fall 2009.

Statement
Photography is a medium which allows for the creation of mysteries and uncommonness. In a certain way, my work relates to performance as it tries to evoke presence. I tackle themes of intimacy, game and social constructions. I attempt to create images which are unstable, situations of transition and tension. The frontier between the snapshot and the staged photo is blurred. This process allows me to create strangeness.

SARAH T. RENSHAW
renshsarah@hotmail.com

Artistic Statement
The works presented is an investigation into the process of reading surfaces and a poetic exploration of materials that can be used for both writing and reading. The act of writing itself is examined through experimentations of translations into new symbolic forms of varying degrees of legibility and abstraction. Writing is widely used to aid in recollection, but I question whether the structure of writing serves to most accurately reflect through its form the structure of thought and recollection. I have researched and developed new methods through which information can be stored and read in forms other than the linear structure of the sentence.