Artist: Cybèle B. Pilon
Cybèle B. Pilon, QUEBEC
Although I work mainly with clay, the "decorative" remains the main raw material of my practice. I am interested in everything that was historically discredited on the basis of their “femininity”, considered non-essential or superfluous in Western culture. In my practice, I try to reclaim what is coded as « amateur » and inferior : Tableware vs. the sculptural, surface decoration vs. form, craft vs. fine arts, earthenware vs. porcelain, maximalist vs. minimalist, commercial vs. institutional, etc.
I dig my inspiration in my french Canadian material culture and shape it into colorful, highly ornamented objects. I am looking for ambiguity, the blur line between the princess and the clown, and objects that echo the complex world from which they emerge. My creations sprout from tradition, bloom in the contemporary world and are the future vestiges of the past.
I think art should impregnate our ordinary daily life and I believe that the domestic space is a radical and powerful place for artistic diffusion.
Born in Montreal in 1990, Cybèle B.Pilon is a French Canadian artist and professionally trained ceramist based in Montréal. She graduated from Bonsecours Ceramic Center in 2017, after a Bachelor degree in Communications Sciences at University of Montréal. She now works alone in her small Montreal home studio since 2018. Inspired by her French Canadian cultural heritage, her pictorial language is developed by declining and altering pre-existing patterns she found in the public space, Québec’s built heritage or folk art. She uses a water etching technique to make colorful and highly ornamented functional objects and uses locally produced red earthenware that contains claystone from Gaspésie (Québec).
Education
2017- DEC 3 years technical studies in ceramics at
Centre de céramique Bonsecours, Canada
2013 - Bachelor degree in Communications Sciences at University of Montréal, Canada
2022 « Yunomi invitational 2022 » at Clay Akar, Iowa, IA, USA
2022 « Exquisite Forms IV » at Charlie Cummings Gallery, Gainesville, FL, USA
2022 « Mug Madness 2022 » at Saltstone Ceramics Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA
2022 « Prix François Houdé 2021» at La Guilde Gallery, Montréal, Qc, Canada
2021 « Small Favors 2021» at The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2021 « Répertoire pictural HMM» at Maison de la culture Mercier, Montréal, Qc, Canada
2021 « Make and Do curated boutique » at The Clay Congress
2020 Art residency at Maison de la culture Mercier, Montréal, Qc, Canada
2020 « Small favors 2020 » at The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2020 « Les fenêtres intempestives 2020 » exhibit headed by Corporation d’animation des places publiques, Montréal, Québec, Canada
2019 « Souk 16e édition » at Montréal, Québec, Canada
2019 « Ornement(ation) » at Lewis Gallery, Limoilou, Qc, Canada
2019 « Roche-papier 01 » at Espace POPOP Gallery, Montréal, Québec, Canada (Curator)
2019 « MA s’expose » at Agora du Cégep du Vieux Montréal
2019 « 1001 pots 31e édition » at Gaétan Beaudin Gallery, Val-David Qc, Canada
2018 « Marching through the Fields », Warbling collective, London, UK
2018 « 1001 pots 30e édition » at Gaétan Beaudin Gallery, Val-David Qc, Canada
2018 « Le bol…12 céramistes/12 appropriations » at Bonsecours Ceramic Center Mtl, Qc, Canada
2018 « 100 » at Bonsecours Ceramic Center Montréal, Québec, Canada
2017 « 1001 pots 29e édition » at Gaétan Beaudin Gallery, Val-David Qc, Canada
2017 « Exposition coups de coeur du public » at Salon des Métiers d’art de Montréal, Mtl, Qc, Canada
2017 « #FinirBonsecours » at Bonsecours Ceramic Center Montréal, Québec, Canada