Taking an animist approach to the material world, Simon Belleau makes work that combines image, sculpture, mythology, symbolism, and a very personal dramaturgy. Mushrooms, human sweat, a turtle shell, an outmoded air conditioner, bath towels, baseball gloves, wax, and rice compose the silent world of a community of things where the organic and the inorganic meet, hybridize, desire each other, and deplete.
The themes of evolution, decay, and change traverse an artistic practice that defies the laws of entropy and decomposition, while at the same time exalting a fragility and beauty touched by melancholy.
The artist is generously supported by the Audain Foundation (2019).
Belleau holds a BFA in Studio Arts & Art History from Concordia University, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a Prix Pierre-Ayot finalist in 2018, and he was awarded the Prix Jeune Tête d'Affiche from Centre Dazibao in 2016. From 2015 to 2017, he co-directed the alternative exhibition space jeux d'été in Chicago. He is also one of the leading members of the alternative space soon.tw in Montreal.
| 2019 | Champs Élysées, Parisian Laundry, Montreal |
| 2018 | Laboratorio Aperto, group show, Asilo Sant’Elia, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como Lake (IT) |
| 2017 | Bronze près d’or entendit les fersabots, cliquetacier, Raising Cattle, Montreal |
| 2016 | SOIF, Optica centre d’art contemporain, Montreal |