Robert Lemay

I’m a Canadian artist who has shown in galleries for thirty years. I’ve had over thirty solo shows and my work is in many esteemed private and corporate collections including the Canada Council Art Bank, The Canadian Embassy in Beijing, Shaw Communications and Edmonton City hall.

In my series, "Grid," I paint square by square, row by row. The painting may appear digitized but is meticulously hand painted. I've always used the grid to scale up my photos but leaving traces of the process creates a tension between the image and the squares of tone and colour which are reassembled by the eye. I think about Gerhard Richter as I make all those choices in each square of the grid – deciding how much and where to blur things. Each square ends up being an abstract painting in a way.
I've always used the grid, as artists since the Renaissance have done to scale up their images, though in these paintings I've allowed it to be seen. In the modern era the grid becomes a subject unto itself underscoring the abstraction. The frontality and regularity of the grid has been explored as a separate subject matter in contemporary art by such artists as Chuck Close, Brice Marden, and Agnes Martin.

My row by row construction of a realist image is ...

Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Alberta, 1984

2018 “Big Screen TV,” The Front Gallery, Edmonton

2016 "Iconic Women," Shayne Gallery, Montreal

2016 "Grid," Wallace Galleries, Calgary

2015 Robert Lemay: 30 Years, Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton

2013 "Flower," Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton

2011 Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton

2010 "In a Narrow Space," Shayne Gallery, Montreal

2009 Wallace Galleries, Calgary

2008 "Calm Things," Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton.

2007 Shayne Gallery, Montreal

2006 Wallace Galleries, Calgary

2005 Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton

2004 Shayne Gallery, Montreal

2003 Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton

2002 Shayne Gallery, Montreal

Wallace Galleries, Calgary

2001 Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton

2000 Wallace Galleries, Calgary

1998 Hollander York Gallery, Toronto

Douglas Udell Gallery, Vancouver

1997 Wallace Galleries, Calgary

1996 Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton

1995 Hollander York Gallery, Toronto

Wallace Galleries, Calgary

1994 Douglas Udell Gallery, Vancouver

Wallace Galleries, Calgary ...