Karine Fréchette’s paintings and volumetric forms construct vertiginous spaces that translate a true obsession for waves and cascades of images. The artist’s gestures weave networks of optical patterns whose slow labour paradoxically evokes electrical pulses, reverberations, constant movements, and the traces left in their wake.
Like a seismograph, the pictorial gesture goes into spasms. The painting surface becomes a vehicle for an energy that passes through space and bodies. Fréchette thus creates an experience of optical and physical exhilaration between the painting and the viewer.
Fréchette holds a BFA in Visual and Media Arts from UQÀM, and an MFA in Studio Arts (Painting and Drawing concentration) from Concordia University. In 2014 and 2018, she was a finalist of the RBC Canadian Painting Competition. She also participated in the Canadian Team for the 8th edition of Jeux de la Francophonie in 2017. In 2018, she was awarded the Prix de la Fondation Joseph Plaskett in painting, which allowed her to stay in Berlin and Leipzig (DE) for 8 months.