A professor at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi since 1980, Alex Magrini has received awards that include the Prix de l’artiste de la paix du Québec and the Prix Sculpture Alcan. While staying in Paris in the 1960s, he rubbed shoulders with members of the Support-Surface group and created paintings on unstretched sheets of canvas. In the 1980s, he focused on building small “antique” theatres, and combined archaeological references with allusions to mythical figures from art and literature in his somewhat baroque sculptures. In the 1990s, his practice took on a completely different tone. In exchange for prints produced at Atelier d’estampe Sagamie, he made sculptures using firearms collected from various Quebec and European organizations and municipalities; evoking the École Polytechnique tragedy, he aimed to encourage stricter laws on gun distribution. One of these projects stirred controversy in the Dutch town of Maastricht in 1993.
SEE:
« Hétérogénéité et simulacre de paysages » by Claude-Maurice Gagnon, ESPACE, vol. 7, n° 3, p. 28.
