Cynthia Coulombe Begin – Biography
An artist of dual North American nationality born in Miami in 1984, CCB grew up in Quebec where she obtained a bachelor's degree in visual arts in 2006 at Laval University. The artist uses his various artistic training taught by his parents from a young age, in order to develop his own language. More specifically, dance and martial arts help her develop her personality and her aesthetic linked to the body, which she exploits in her pictorial practice. CCB began her professional artistic career upon leaving University at the Marius Barbeau Museum with a first Solo, Traces Corporelles, in 2006. She accumulated her experience with exhibitions in different galleries and private companies, prizes and collective events at the Quebec and internationally.
Inspired by the body and the experience of humanity, CCB's creative approach consists of the reconstitution of the organism in fragments with great sensitivity which offers a reflection on our identity and our existence. Referring to the body and its evolution, she develops her pictorial research marked by her interests in portraits in which the eyes and the mouth predominate. Through his works, the artist presents his thoughts on the soul and matter, consciousness and the universe.
“My creative approach focuses on the metamorphic interpretation of our inner identity in the face of our projected image. I am inspired by the fragmented body envelope that I mark with spontaneous gestures of vibrant colors. The experience of painting leads me to look differently, to self-discovery, to the point of astonishment. A movement from the outside to the inside takes shape, the feeling of a quest for invisible energy, a marriage of body and mind. I explore the limits of figuration imbued with textures and movement effects.
The notion of spectacle, the quest for identity, the body exposed in an explosive universe reflects my desire to showcase all the beauty and vulnerability of our existence in the same image. I think of my painting as a staging. The representation of the exterior being towards its interior addresses the dualities of the visible and the invisible, the material and the immaterial. In a spirit of freedom, I explore being, the universe and its infinity. »
The pictorial work of this young artist has experienced, over time, an influence from the performing arts for its contrasts and its exuberance. We find in his works an interest in humans, especially the portrait highlighting the mouths or the eyes which are exhibited behind a quantity of vibrant material worked with a spatula. A variation of techniques evolve and change through experience. Realistic renderings with a brush, abstractions with a spatula and spray paint form a happy mix of contemporary art inspired by street arts. Cynthia Coulombe Bégin's images are imbued with symbolism and eroticism.
