JENNIFER LEFORT

JENNIFER LEFORT

The paintings of Jennifer Lefort embody a fresh approach to abstraction, and a keen ability to bring gesture, form, and colour together in a graceful and original choreography. Her deft mark-making leads the viewer around her compositions leaving them to question the image’s content. Gestures are large and immediate, mountains or gobs of paint take over most of the picture plane. Never random or vulnerable, these gestures are firmly selected and composed and meet in strategic, interesting ways, forming strong and sometimes comical relationships. Lefort's extraordinary colours seem to survey the everyday in an unusual and unimaginable way.

Jennifer Lefort completed an Honours BFA at Concordia University in Montreal in 2002. She received her MFA from York University in Toronto in 2006 and was awarded the Graduate Development Fund and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Award in 2005. She is the recipient of the prestigious Joseph Plaskett Foundation Award, an advancement/travel grant she used to further her research in Berlin, Germany. She was also a finalist in the 2007 RBC Canadian Painting Competition. Her paintings are found in numerous collections including the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Aldo Group, Giverny Capital, Hydro-Québec, and Abbott Laboratories. Lefort has exhibited her paintings at galleries in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and has been featured in several publications and articles. She is also represented by Montreal's Parisian Laundry.

Lefort will be making her debut at PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY in the group exhibition STATE OF THE ART from May 25 to June 30, 2011.


EDUCATION
2006 M.F.A. York University, Toronto, On, Canada
2002 B.F.A. with distinction, Concordia University, Montreal, Qc, Canada

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010 Make-Believe, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Qc
2007 After Berlin, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Qc
2006 Spots & Fabulisms, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto, On
Pretend You’re Here, Galerie Trois Points, Montreal, Qc
2004 Juicy, Galerie Trois Points, Montreal, Qc
2004 The Systematic Arrangement of Pretty, SKOL Centre des arts actuels, Montreal, Qc
2003 Titillation, Maison de la culture NDG, Montreal, Qc
2002 Lined Sofa, A Salon of New Work, 4721 Pontiac, Montreal, Qc
Candy & Tar, Annexe Belgo, Montreal, Qc

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2012 Papier 12 Contemporary Art Fair, Montreal
2012 PMG Editions Project, Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Ottawa
2011 State Of The Art, Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Ottawa, On
2010 Beyond/In Western New York, Castellani Art Museum/Albright-Knox, Buffalo NY
2010 Summertime in Paris, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Qc
2008 Summertime in Paris, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Qc
2008 The first five years, Emily Carr Concourse Gallery, Vancouver, Bc
2007 Introducing, Bjornson Kajiwara, Vancouver, Bc
2007 RBC Canadian Painting Competition Exhibition, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto; Galerie d'art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen, Université de Moncton; MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, Ont.; Winnipeg Art Gallery; Emily Carr Institute Art + Design, Vancouver BC
2006 Summertime in Paris, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Qc
2006 CollectArt: La collection, Maison de la culture Frontenac, Montreal, Qc
2005 Small Comets: A New Class of Interplanetary Bodies Confirmed.,
64 Steps Contemporary Art, Toronto, On
2005 Chromopholie, Gallerie Trois Points, Montreal, Qc
2002 Tribute to Yves Gaucher, Leaonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal, Qc
2001 New Generation, Sandra Goldie Gallery, Montreal, Qc

SELECTED AWARDS
2009 Canada Council for the Arts grant
2007 Semi-Finalist – RBC Painting Competition
2005 Joseph Plaskett Foundation Award
2005 Graduate Development Fund
2002 Henry Mills Prize

SELECTED PRESS
2010 Beyond/In Western New York: Alternating Currents, Louis Grachos, John Massier, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, (catalogue)
2008 The First Five Years, Joseph Plaskett Award Foundation, (catalogue)
2008 RBC Canadian Painting Competition 10 Years, Laurel MacMillan, Friesens, (catalogue)
2007 After Berlin-Jennifer Lefort, Jeanie Riddle, Meredith Carruthers, Parisian Laundry, (catalogue)
2007 Each work a new la-la land, Christine Redfern, Montreal Gazette, November10
2007 RBC Canadian Painting Competition, Leah Sandals, Royal Bank of Canada, (catalogue)
2006 Yay Paris, Christine Redfern, Montreal Mirror, August 8
2006 Le vent dans les toiles, Nicolas Mavrikakis, VOIR, August 24
2006 Jennifer Lefort: Pretend You’re Here, James D. Campbell, Modern Painters ,May issue, p119
2006 On maps, birds and a rising star’s solo show, Gary Michael Dault, The Globe and Mail, April 8, pR16
2005 Toronto painting student wins rich art prize, The Globe and Mai, December 8
2005 Abstract artist wins $25,000 travel grant, CBC Arts News Online, December 7, www. cbc.ca
2005 Small Comets, Gary Michael Dault, The Globe and Mail, September 3, pR9
Des généalogies qui parlent, Bernard Lamarche, Le Devoir, April 16-17
2004 En Forme, Lyne Crevier, Ici, March 4-10, p30
2002 A fitting Tribute, Henry Lehmann, The Gazette, July 20, pI3

COLLECTIONS
Abbott Laboratories Lmt, Canada
Aldo Group, Inc.
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Concordia University, CollectArt
Hydro-Quebec
Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec
Schulich School of Business
Stephen R. Pile Architects Inc.
Private Collections, Canada, U.S.A, France, Germany.


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