Louis-Pierre Lachapelle
For many years, I’ve created artwork based on my surroundings and my interpretation of how people manifest themselves in these environments. I was always driven by social and political interactions in our society, but never was I analyzing my own personal journey in relation to the world I live in. For the first time, with this new series of paintings, I am allowing myself to revisit a body of work that started years ago. Instead of erasing the past, I am embracing the meaning and the marks already made while manipulating and adding new emotions to these entrenched stories. Gravité is the culmination of personal events that lead to an aerial world view where perspective has no meaning and the human body gets disoriented.
In these works, the human form as well as materials get lost in the making. Tradition and techniques are manipulated in a manner that is chemically abnormal. The “gravité” takes place through visual references and also in many uncontrolled ways. Not only do I embrace instability in the process, I also allow myself to be destabilized. But I also let the chemical fluids drive the outcome of these paintings. There is a complete acceptance in how the gravité is manifesting itself and how it influences the evolution of all actions and reactions. These phenomena are also part of my own journey and how events manifest in my personal life.
While creating something very intimate, I want the viewer to experience and find their own voyage in the work. Returning to the foundations of painting gave me the chance to engage in a dynamic visual dialogue through a variety of materials and media. Investigating the “highs” in contrasts, textures, lines, drawings and photo transfers, I am in search of lows – as in grounding -- in these unsettling aerial environments. Another important dialogue in this body of work occurred through my collaboration with photographer Erin Little. A dialogue between ideologies and interdisciplinary mediums resulting in a cohesive union of disparate aesthetics.
- Louis-Pierre Lachapelle
Louis-Pierre Lachapelle “LP” received his MFA at Temple University. He creates his work at his studio in Portland, Maine. After living in various places across Europe, the US, and Canada, he derived his sense of identity through the multiple cultures and experiences which have subsequently influenced his work. Working in various mediums and consistently pushing boundaries in not only materials, but various outcomes, he creates unique, unexpected bodies of work ranging from small works on paper to life-sized canvases. Regardless of medium or size, his work is delicate yet powerful, allowing the viewer the space to interpret them as they desire.
