From farm to Art

Born on the family farm in Saint-Ubalde, in Portneuf, Martin Bureau grew up in Saint-Félicien, in Lac-Saint-Jean, where his father went to work in a pulp and paper factory. “Otherwise, I would have become a farmer, as we were from father to son back home. My friends were interested in Art, especially my friend Fred Fortin. I had talent in drawing, so I went to study visual arts in Montreal. I didn’t want to end up in the factory! »

After studying at CEGEP de Saint-Laurent then at UQAM, he met Rafael Sottolichio. Like the latter, he wants, more than anything, to paint.

His painting also opened the doors to the Baie-Saint-Paul Contemporary Art Symposium in 1997. He sold his first painting there, The shadow of wordsto Marcel Jean, current general director of the Cinémathèque québécoise. “It allowed me, 22 years later, to present the installation The walls of disorder at the Cinémathèque, a co-production with the NFB,” says Martin Bureau.

In his early years, he was influenced by the painters Gerhard Richter and Marc Tansey. His style is defined, combining a fascination with history, politics, society, allegories and metaphors. Painting in oil, he then discovered watercolor, which embellishes the painted subject but which he paradoxically diverts to describe the horrors of humanity.

Martin Bureau has always cultivated a feeling of indignation. “In primary school, we prayed in the morning. I started a petition to stop this and I won! At 10 years old! And then, I have always been attracted to conflict. I knew early on that I wouldn’t paint floral arrangements. And cinema came to nourish that. »

From 2000 to 2014, he multiplied exhibitions, in Quebec and Montreal, with the Lacerte gallery, then in 2016 he moved to Galerie 3, which became the Chiguer gallery in 2023. Exhibitions connected to the news of our world agitated. At the same time, thanks to Fred Fortin, he illustrated record covers. For Fred and his group Gros Mené, but also for Les Cowboys Fringants, Tire le coyote, Steve Faulkner and Robert Charlebois.