BIOGRAPHY
Born in Ottawa (Ontario), Liliane Keeler is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works on the south shore of Montreal. Initially trained in fashion design, she later earned a B.A. in visual arts and art history from the Université du Québec in Montréal. She also took several courses in mosaic art in Montreal and in France. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Canada and internationally, in Buenos Aires and Paray-le-Monial, France. Recipient of a creation grant from the Town of Boucherville, she is a professional member of the Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec and of the International Association of Contemporary Mosaicists. Her work is included in both public and private collections in Canada and in France.
STATEMENT
Focusing on the human condition, my work centres on themes of fragility, affiliation, and identity. I am touched by my surroundings; how I view the world has been modulated by the transformative experience of volunteering and working with vulnerable individuals and the elderly. The overlapping of private life and artistic life has mobilized me around the notion of loss and the impermanence of time.
My concerns relate to ethical, social, and ecological questions that cross our society. I navigate through current events that move me, and it is through this drifting posture that I target the subjects of my works. I move between past and present, history often surfacing through my manipulation of photographic archives or the use of objects that carry a memory. Giving my voice to causes such as the preservation of natural habitats and the fight against pollution pays tribute to the greatness of the environments that support us.
The multidisciplinary approach that I adopt allows me to combine a form of abstract expressionism with technical knowledge of the material. Painting, mosaics, installations, and street art thus percolate, with practices flowing into each other and establishing a corpus of continuity. My work includes a diversity of noble, recycled, and repurposed materials: marble, slate, glass, and ceramics are invited to my worktable, as are driftwood, shells, fabric, lace, and pearls.
This same interest in the representational quality of objects and the effects of perception fuels my painting practice: the application of layers of acrylic impasto or ink and a multitude of techniques and gestures give shape to my paintings. These strategies allow me to create a moving space and explore pictoriality in new ways.
References to romantic art, Roman and Greek mosaic techniques from Antiquity, and a valorization of recovered and historied elements for metaphorical as well as environmental concerns-all contribute to the evolution of a practice that sits at the crossroads of reality and imagination.