After attending the École des beaux-arts d’Aix-en-Provence, École Charpentier in Paris and the École nationale des beaux-arts de Dijon (1983), Jean Brillant received a BFA at the Université du Québec à Montréal (1984). Abandoning the installation-based practices of the seventies and eighties, he returned instead to the sculpture-object. By integrating fieldstone and various fabricated elements into the same work, he blends manufactured and found material, synthetic and natural objects. Using minimal elements, Brillant’s works are based on spatial principles such as verticality, balance, asymmetry and envelopment: the stone simultaneously serves as a link, a point of reference, an end and a catalyst. In addition to exhibiting his work in many galleries and museums, including the Musée de Lachine (1990) and the Musée régional de Rimouski (1988), he has participated in a number of symposiums in Saint-Léonard (1986), Laval (1990), Villefranche-sur-Saône (France, 1991), Amos (1997) and Gatineau (2000). Brillant also collaborated on a 1988 publication entitled Pierres sculptables du Québec: marbres, calcaires et roches tendres. For the past several years, he has been holding various events at his studio in southwest Montreal.
SEE:
« Un parc, une sculpture… » by John K. Grande, ESPACE, vol. 6 #1, p. 51.
« Une certaine nature morte ou des extraits du réel » by Hedwidge Asselin, ESPACE #42, p. 36.
« Sculpture, Around and About » by Serge Fisette, ESPACE #70, p. 5.
« Jean Brillant : Métissages et mimétismes » by Anithe De Carvalho, ESPACE #85, p. 25.