A Canadian artist known worldwide for his intricate landscape sculptures made from vintage books will give a talk at SUNY Fredonia in October as part of the Department of Visual Art and New Media’s Visiting Artist Program.
Guy Laramée, a Montreal-based artist who works in multiple disciplines and mediums, will give his talk on Thursday, Oct. 3 at 8:30 p.m. in 209 McEwen Hall on the SUNY Fredonia campus.
Over the last 30 years, Laramée has created in such varied disciplines as theater, contemporary music composition, musical instrument design and building, singing, video, scenography, sculpture, installation, painting and literature.
He has received more than 30 arts grants and was awarded the Canada Council’s Joseph S. Stauffer award for musical composition. Laramée’s work has been presented in United States, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Latin America. His art has been presented in museums and galleries and in more than 35 solo and collective exhibitions.
Since 1999, Laramée has been creating landscape sculptures from old books, using a circular saw to cut and shape them.
These intricate sculptures are in high demand and have sold for up to $20,000. In 2012, Laramée was featured in a CBS This Morning segment looking at his works and his creative process.
Laramée explained the statement he is trying to make with these sculptures.
“Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains,” Laramée stated. “They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply is. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are. After 30 years of practice, the only thing I still wish my art to do is this: to project us into this thick ‘cloud of unknowing.’”
The Department of Visual Art and New Media’s Visiting Artist Program provides an opportunity for exposure to a variety of art and design professionals from around the country. This program features a variety of thought-provoking speakers each year. The speakers provide information about the many directions, options and possibilities inherent in art and design from professionals who are working regionally, nationally and internationally.
Past Visiting Artist Program speakers have included installation artist Christo; photographer, author and critic Robert Hirsch and designer Julian Montague.
