Serge Tousignant

Born in 1942, Serge Tousignant studied at the École des beaux-arts in Montreal before pursuing studies at the University College of London’s Slade School of Fine Arts. Since 1960, his interdisciplinary practice has been characterised by photographic experimentation. His work is associated with the emergence of conceptual art in Quebec and of the dawning of the “prefabricated image”—a photographic movement which came about in the 1980s. Tousignant has participated in multiple exhibitions, both in Quebec and abroad, many of which are now considered landmarks: Présence des jeunes at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (1966); Camerart at Optica in Montreal (1974); Québec 75 at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (1975); Lumières: Perceptions et projections as part of the CIAC’s Cent jours d’art contemporain, Montreal (1986); Parcours photographique : 1972-1992 / Phases in Photography presented at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in Ottawa (1992); Œuvres conceptuelles : 1969-1980 / 2010 at Galerie Graff in Montreal (2012), etc.

Serge Tousignant’s work is included in several major public, corporate and private collections, both national and international, among them the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), the Los Angeles Museum of Art (LAMA), the Bridgestone Art Gallery, and Tokyo’s National Museum of Modern Art. As a founding member of the artist-run centre Véhicule Art, which came into being in 1972, Tousignant played a crucial role in the development of the local art scene. He was also a professor of visual arts in the Université de Montréal Art History department from 1974 to 2002. He is represented by Galerie Graff in Montreal. [Source: VOX, 2018.]