Émilie Régnier
Since June 2021
This spring, Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal is pleased to welcome Émilie Régnier for a residency. The Canadian artist is in preparation for an exhibition at the Blouin Division gallery in early 2023.
About
Émilie Régnier addresses issues of racial and cultural representation within a social hierarchy, and the intersection of race and genetics in her work. She reiterates her own body, imprinting herself on various support: cotton, linen, silk, quilts, bogolans from Mali, indigo from Guinea, military fabrics, and so on. These textiles are filled with the stories of her ancestors spanning in between Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and Canada. The print of her body does not reveal her identity, but highlights undoubtedly her gender and racial affiliation. These images could represent many thousands of black women. Her body in this work is merely the symbol of a much larger group. And this group is the most overlooked one in America.
Émilie Régnier was born in 1984 in Canada, and spent most of her childhood in Africa, mainly Gabon. Graduated from Collège Marsan in 2005 and, soon, Concordia (2023), she lives and works in Montreal. Her recent exhibitions include: La Bella de Luanda at PH Centre (Cape Town, South Africa), From Mobutu to Beyonce at Bronx Documentary Center (New York, United States), Leopard at the OFF Dakar Biennale (Dakar, Senegal), Hair at the Photo Vogue Festival (Milan, Italy), Leopard at Paris Photo Grand Palais (Paris, France), Passeport at Photoquai - biennale des images du monde (Paris, France) and Passeport at Unseen (Amsterdam, Netherlands).