Laurent Craste research focuses on conceptual explorations of the decorative collectibles. Replaying the inventory of original models from the main 18^th and 19^th century European porcelain manufacturers, he submits his works to a practice of deconstruction and violent alteration of their formal structures, or contaminates their traditional decorations through a subversive process of subject substitution. These formal and iconographic corruptions, as they reassess the historical, social, political and aesthetic values of the decorative object, also reveal an intense and ambiguous relationship with it.

Of French origin, Laurent Craste has been living and working in Montreal for the past 25 years. Trained ceramists, he holds a master’s degree in visual and media arts from Université du Québec à Montréal. He has participated in more than 60 collective exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia and also presented a dozen solo exhibitions notably at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Tom Thomson Art Gallery (ON), the Art Gallery of Burlington (ON), the Peter’s Project (NM, É.-U.), the Museum of Moving Image (NY, É.-U.) as well as the Cité de la mode et du design (Paris, FR). During his career, Craste received several awards and honours among which the Jean-Marie Gauvreau Award (2016) and the prestigious Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists (2002). His works are part of numerous institutions including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada, the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Burlington, the Musée Bertrand as well as several corporate and private collections such as Loto-Québec, the Cirque du Soleil, Claridge and Majudia collection.

Less »