ROY, Daniel (1948)

Daniel Roy graduated from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1974. His early work comprises a colourful collection of small-format ceramic figures, often inspired by the circus or by his own family and friends. A believer in the democratization of art, he also produced “wearable” sculptures that he would don while walking about in public, offering glasses of wine to passersby in the custom of a gallery vernissage. Roy’s interest in nature and the environment eventually led him to focus on gardens and topiary art. In 1993, for example, at an exhibition entitled Parcours excentrique (“eccentric journey”) at the Maison Hamel-Bruneau de Sainte-Foy, he presented a sphere crafted from metal rods that symbolized the Earth gradually becoming covered with plants. Now a gardener for the City of Montreal, he has since been carrying out landscaping projects akin to in situ environmental installations—at times ephemeral, at times perennial—in the parks and alleyways of the Southwest borough.