Josée Drouin-Brisebois: Venice Bound
"Josée Drouin-Brisebois: Venice Bound" by Kimberlie Birks, Canadian Art, Winter 2010, pp. 74-5
OTTAWA In early August, it was announced that BC’s Steven Shearer would represent Canada at the 54th Venice Biennale, opening June 4, 2011. In charge of the project is Josée Drouin-Brisebois, the National Gallery of Canada’s senior curator of contemporary art. For her, “this is an opportunity to introduce Steven to the world, but also, in a certain regard, to introduce him to Canada.”
While the 42-year-old Vancouver artist has gained an international reputation and blue-chip gallery backing, Shearer is without representation in Canada and remains largely unknown outside of the art scene. “We were looking for an artist with a strong body of work and international exposure, but also someone who is at a great moment in their career,” says Drouin-Brisebois. With the 2011 Biennale and a solo exhibition at the National Gallery slated for 2013, that recognition can’t be far away.
Drouin-Brisebois stands in the spotlight with Shearer. A National Gallery veteran, she began working at the gallery in 1995 as a curatorial assistant in Media Arts. Following a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Ottawa and a Masters in Art History from l’Université de Montréal, she organized a Christopher Pratt survey in 2005. Appointed Curator of Contemporary Art in 2007, she has mounted “Dé-con-structions” (2007), “Caught in the Act: The Viewer as Performer” (2008) and “Nomads” (2009).
Drouin-Brisebois looks forward to creating a visible profile for Canada at the crowded and usually contentious Biennale. “I hope that people take the time to think and experience the work in all its complexities, and to appreciate the tensions it creates,” she says. “This is what inspires me in Shearer’s work. We think we understand it, but it is complex and multi-layered.”
The curator and the artist travelled to visit the Canada Pavilion soon after Shearer was selected. “Shearer’s response was really to the architecture, which I think is a very good beginning,” Drouin-Brisebois says. In its exploration of the margins of pop culture, much of Shearer’s work examines the struggle between structure and desire, containment and freedom. “It is interesting to think of the confinement of the Pavilion space and what could happen in there,” the curator says. “Steven is also shifting his working process, so it’s an interesting creative moment to see what will come next. He always amazes and surprises me.”
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