Within a Handful
August 10th to September 17th
Nicole Levaque, Remy Fortin
A Garden, A Lamb & A Pearl, exhibition text by Marie Ségolène C. Brault.
EN / FR
TAP Art Space is proud to present Within a Handful, a duo exhibition featuring works by Nicole Levaque and Remy Fortin, two artists whose distinct practices converge on themes of nature, resilience, and interconnectedness. The exhibition will be in view from August 10th to September 17th; with an opening reception on Thursday, August 10th from 5-8pm with both artists present at the gallery.
This exhibition speaks to the urgency of our socio-ecological crisis and the intimate realities of chronic pain and healing. “Within a Handful” takes its name from the phrase "seeing worlds within a handful of moss," encapsulating the artists' shared approach of engaging deeply with their surroundings. Levaque and Fortin echo the idea of world building within their practices. Each of them intricately observes, dissects, and reinterprets their environment — Levaque through the intimacy of objects and Fortin through his engagement with plant life and landscapes.
Nicole Levaque's sculptural installations and ceramics address hierarchies of consumption, chronic pain, and her emotional attachment to objects. Her work combines the familiar with the extraordinary, using found objects and handbuilt ceramics to echo queer tableaus of domesticity and excess. Each piece is in constant play, subject to the unpredictability of materiality and the ebb and flow of the creative process.
On the other hand, Remy Fortin's paintings present his daily encounters with plants as a journey towards overcoming "plant blindness." His work ranges from intimate portraits of plants to expansive landscapes, revealing glimpses of a larger ecological reality within their microcosm. His intention is to cultivate a greater sensitivity for the "global" by paying attention to the "local," or vice versa.
Together, their work invites a deeper contemplation of our surroundings, exploring themes of interconnectedness, resilience, and scale shifts.
Artists in Dialogue: Nicole Levaque and Remy Fortin, Moderated by Gabriel Baribeau.
About the Artists
Nicole Levaque is an artist based in Hamilton, ON working in sculpture and installation. She uses ceramics for its familiarity rooted in touch to understand and mirror the visual excess of our everyday. Levaque holds an MFA in Sculpture and Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University (2019) and a BFA in Painting from Concordia University (2014). Her work has been exhibited and collected both locally and internationally and has been supported through grants from Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts.
Remy Fortin is a self-taught artist based in Montreal. With a focus on Nature and ecology, Fortin critiques anthropocentrism through his art, proposing a pluralistic conception of the environment. He holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in architecture from the University of Montreal (2017) and McGill University (2020) and is currently completing a doctorate in architecture at McGill University.
For further information or press inquiries, please reach out to contact@tapartspace.com
