Fortin, Jérôme

Born in Joliette in 1971, Jérôme Fortin lives and works in Montreal. In his sculpture-installations, Fortin combines the practice of curiosity cabinets—private museums of the seventeenth century—with the mass consumption of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Corks, plastic bottles, books, matches, nails, and tin cans are cunningly handled and assembled in several series of visual and material curiosities. Their colours, forms, textures, and volumes suggest the flowers, seashells, jewellery, and amulets once collected by the curious for their exoticism. The poetic, mysterious allure of Fortin’s sculptures diverts the ordinary aspect of everyday objects to excite our contemporary gaze. Since 1996, he has had some ten solo exhibitions, mainly in Quebec and Canada. He has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions not only in here, but also in Berlin, Bologna, Brussels, Dieppe and New York City. He has done several artist residencies, among others at the World Financial Center Arts and Events (New York) and the Christoph-Merian Foundation (Basel). He had a major solo exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 2007. He was award the Prix Pierre-Ayot in 2004. His work can be found in the collections of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée de Joliette, the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, the City of Montreal, as well as in corporate and private collections. [227]