Having devoted her creative energies for more than ten years to the human figure and particularly to the female form, Montreal-based artist Nathalie Maranda is now focused principally upon plant and animal forms.

Her most recent body of work, in continuity with her past productions, is a series based upon a single theme that demonstrates again the profound social commitment of this artist to sensitize the public regarding the precariousness of planetary equilibrium, and the fragility of our environment.

Her recent works evoke St.Francis of Assissi’s harmonious vision of the world as expressed in his famous Fioretti, the modest poetic masterpieces the saint wrote to the glory of God’s creatures. The earliest known manuscript of the "Fioretti" is dated 1390; the work was first printed at Vicenza in 1476.

The boundless possibilities of expression following from this inspiration allow for the artist to engage in both complementary and contrasting rhythms. The subject evokes matter and matter becomes subject, through an unending process of discovery improvised on the rhythm of the theme.

Nathalie Maranda’s creative expression moves beyond the traditional antimony of the figuration-abstraction relation. The representational image is often scarcely outlined, but it moves, falters, flows and melts, finally yielding to the painted surface –a dynamic universe which creates and recreates itself into the occurrence, the shape of meaning, through the residue of sculpting organic matter, a method in continuity with her previous explorations.

The presentation of her work in groups, in diptych, triptych, or polyptychs, is a compositional principle that recurs in this body of work. Her palette, despite the richness of hues in ochre, earthy sienna, vibrant blue, and pale magenta, unremittingly evokes an apocalyptic world: devastated, deserted, burnt, petrified.

And, beyond its aesthetic character, Nathalie Maranda’s work posits a space for meditation and the possibility of an encounter. Not simply an encounter of matter and gesture, but also, and above all, an encounter with the spectator - as observer and actor - self-guided, circulating among the clues offered by the artist; appropriating all the possibilities that pile up, one upon the next, from one work to the next, from gestural accumulation, from surfaces wrought of ochre and brown earth tones; celestial, primordial, blues, reds and yellows; set in motion by the artist’s hand, to come alive on the canvas, to be transformed through our gaze.

BIO
Lives and works in Canada

Over the last several years Nathalie Maranda has focussed on a humanist and committed approach to painting which is meant to rouse social consciousness. Her most recent series of works, “Le cantique des créatures “ is a noteworthy expression of this intention. This group of paintings is, in the very least, a denunciation of the destruction of the environment, constantly threatened, as it is, by the carelessness of humans. Referring to a decline in humanity, this recent production evokes in a veiled fashion the harmonious world of St-Francis of Assisi expressed in the celebrated Fioretti, small poetic masterpieces written by the saint to the glory of the creatures of God. Ecologist avant la lettre, forerunner in the domain of protection and conservation of all species, he would be a witness, were he alive today, of a nature defaced by the seemingly boundless arrogance of mankind.

Since her professional debut in 1990, the human condition has been an essential component of her formal preoccupations and of her creative process. It is therefore not surprising to find a humanistic core to her work. Sustained by rhythms that are complementary or contrasting (or both) the act of painting finds its niche within the normative opposition between figuration and abstraction. Unfurled in diptychs, triptychs or polyptics, her very particular treatment of the painterly matter is the guiding principle that runs through her successive works. Warm ochres, earthy browns, the richness and the sensuality of varied textures, all appeal to the spectator’s wish to entertain a dialogue with matter itself. Her themes are of a thought-provoking nature though not at the expense of emotion, intelligence and reflection – all the while leaving enough room for the senses. Their aesthetic aspect therefore remains integral.

EDUCATION
1990 Bachelor of Visual Arts, concentration in painting - University of Quebec at Montreal
1986 Certificate of Visual Arts - University of Quebec at Montreal
1983 Certificate of Psychology - University of Montreal

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2004 Galerie Estampe Plus, Québec
2002 Centre national d’exposition, Jonquière, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal
2001 Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides, Saint-Jérôme, Québec Galerie, Han Art,
         Montréal Musée Mestna Ljubljana, Slovénie (duo) Galerie Estampe Plus,
         Québec Maison des Arts de Laval, Laval
2000 Maison de la Culture Frontenac de Montréal, Montréal
1999 Centre d’exposition d’Amos, Amos, Québec Maison de la culture Ville des Laurentides,
         Ville des Laurentides, Québec
1998 Galerie Han Art Contemporain, Montréal
1997 Maison de la Culture Côte-des-Neiges, Montréal
1995 Galerie Port-Maurice, Saint-Léonard, Québec
1993 Maison de la Culture Notre-Dame de Grâce, Montréal

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2004 Galerie Estampe Plus, Québec
2002 Nouvelle Représentation, Galerie de Bellefeuille
2001 Musée d’art de Mont Saint-Hilaire, Saint-Hilaire, Québec Galerie d’Outremont, Outremont,
         Québec Galerie Han Art Contemporain, Montréal
2000 Traversée du siècle, Domaine Cataraqui, Sillery, Québec Événement de la clôture des Galeries
         Éphémères, Observatoire 4, Montréal Traversée du siècle, Collection Desjardins d’oeuvres
         d’art, Centre National d’Exposition de Jonquière, Jonquière, Québec La mort, Maison de la
         Culture Marie-Uguay, Montréal Collection La peau de l’Ours, Galerie Outremont, Outremont,
         Québec Culture de la Paix, Centre d’exposition Boréart, Granby, Québec Galerie Han Art
         Contemporain, Montréal
1999 La Galerie Madeleine Lacerte reçoit la Galerie Han Art, Galerie Madeleine Lacerte,
         Québec Galerie Han Art Contemporain, Montréal Exposition des artistes du symposium,
         4ième symposium d’Iberville, Hôtel de Ville d’Iberville, Québec Third Avenue Gallery,
         Vancouver
1998 Pavillon des arts du Palais Montcalm, Québec La quête de l’eau, Biosphère de Montréal,
         Montréal Centre culturel Marie-Fitzback, Saint-Georges de Beauce, Québec Les artistes de la
         galerie, Galerie Han Art Contemporain, Montréal Body Talk, Illuminary Art Gallery, Toronto,
         Ontario 2 D - 3 D, Galerie Outremont, Outremont
1997 Éradication de la pauvreté, Musée Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Montréal La grande virée, Galerie
         Simon-Blais, Montréal Collection d’entreprise, Centre d’exposition Rouyn-Noranda,
         Rouyn-Noranda, Québec Exposition d’ouverture, Galerie Le Bateau Lavoir, Montréal
1995 Collection Desjardins d’oeuvres d’art, Maison de la culture d’Amos, Amos, Québec
1994 Montréal-Monaco, Maison de France, Monaco 18ième exposition des artistes professionnels
         contemporains Québécois, Collège Dawson, Montréal
1993 10 ans déjà, Galerie Estampe Plus, Québec Exposition Thomas Moore, Maison de la culture
         Côte-des-Neiges, Montréal Le nu contemporain, Galerie Palardy Lacerte, Montréal
1992 Le nu contemporain, Édifice Belgo, Montréal Montréal, Ville francophone interculturelle,
         Collège de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke
1991 Exposition Thomas Moore, Maison de la culture Côte des Neiges de Montréal, Montréal
         Montréal, ville francophone interculturelle, Centre interculturelle Strathearn, Montréal
         Rétrospective du symposium de 1985-90, Centre d’art de Baie Saint-Paul, Baie Saint-Paul
         Gagnon, Lafrance, Maranda, Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal 15ième exposition des artistes
         professionnels contemporain québécois, Collège Dawson, Montréal La pauvreté des femmes,
         Galerie Le Parvis, Saint-Hyacinthe Galerie Estampe Plus, Québec Exposition des oeuvres de
         la collection, Édifice Loto Québec, Montréal
1990 Exposition Thomas Moore, Salle Tudor, Ogilvy, Montréal Salon des oeuvres sur papier de
         Montréal, Galerie Art-Jeunesse, Montréal La jeune relève en peinture, Galerie Estampe Plus,
         Québec 8 x 10, les années 80, Galerie de l’Université de Montréal (SAC), Montréal Le dessin
         de la relève, Galerie Estampe Plus, Québec

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Gaz Métroploitain
La peau de l’ours, Montréal
Hydro-Québec, Montréal
Loto-Québec, Montréal
Confédération des caisses populaires Desjardins, Montréal
Le centre d’art de Baie Saint-Paul
Collège Dawson, Montréal
Les fromages Saputo, Montréal
Losna & Tron, Montréal
Andrée Pelletier Communication, Montréal