Willy Le Maitre
Drawing from his background in painting and time-based art forms, Willy Le Maitre (b. 1965, Montreal, Canada) arranges snapshots into densely layered compositions that allude to the three-dimensional and seem to propel us through space.
Le Maitre plays off the aesthetic of street photography, transforming his subjects, places, and anecdotal scenes into poetic assemblages: a fleet of taxicabs merge with the spoils of a mushrooms foray; two lovers appear in sun-dappled puddles that drift into a waterfall; the dismantling of an art fair interleaves with a child's sofa fort. They are kinetic photographs built from casual glimpses and in a state of constant flux; intermingling images observed, thought, remembered and dreamed.
Over the past fifteen years he has developed a body of work he describes as the inhabited image - where an artwork is experienced in space as well as in our bodies- 'an image we occupy rather than one that represents for us'. The work includes innovations with Stereo 3D videos, live VRML performances, VR, 3D lenticular prints and his phantaceutic Art Drugs. The artwork has been featured in New York at The New Museum, The Kitchen, CANADA, CCS Bard College Galleries, Bitforms, the Baryshnikov Art Centre and in other public galleries.
Artworks
Willy Le Maitre,
Folk fc,
2016,
65 × 48 ⅜ in (165.10 × 122.87 cm)
3D lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
tied eye openings,
2019,
48 × 36 in (121.92 × 91.44 cm)
Lenticular pigment-based inkjet print and acrylic mounted on aluminum
Willy Le Maitre,
Deep-Street-Details (left and right views),
2016,
3D-stereo projection installation
Willy Le Maitre,
Voltare,
2015,
49 × 68 ½ in (124.46 × 173.99 cm)
Lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
pretzel graft,
2016,
64 × 48 inches (162.56 × 121.92 cm)
3D lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
Bubbles,
2015,
48 × 36 in (121.92 × 91.44 cm)
3D lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
autumn tumblr,
2016,
64 × 48 inches (162.56 × 121.92 cm)
3D lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
blue poles coupe,
2016,
64 × 48 in (162.56 × 121.92 cm)
3D lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
Lens Bud,
2014,
24 ¼ × 26 ¼ in (61.595 × 66.675 cm)
3D lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
Pamper Street,
2013,
24 × 36 in (60.96 × 91.44 cm)
3D lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
Tadpole Stage,
2013,
24 × 36 in (60.96 × 91.44 cm)
3D lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
Stoppages,
2013,
24 × 36 in (60.96 × 91.44 cm)
3D lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
Route Tracer,
2013,
24 × 36 in (60.96 × 91.44 cm)
Lenticular print
Willy Le Maitre,
Chiral Eyes (left and right with composite view),
2011,
3D-stereo projection installation
Willy Le Maitre,
Chiral Eyes (left and right with composite view),
2011,
3D-stereo projection installation
Willy Le Maitre,
Outlook Expressed frame (left and right views),
2011,
3D-stereo projection installation
Willy Le Maitre,
The Appearance Machine Installation Shot,
2011,
Autonomous system for media generation
Willy Le Maitre,
The Surrounds (frame),
2008–11,
Dimensions variable
3d-stereo projection installation
Exhibitions
Press
Rosemary Heather "Willy Le Maitre." Border Crossings 2016 95-96
Blake Gopnik "Willy Le Maitre, Cezanne's 3D Heir?." Artnet May 11, 2016
CV
Willy Le Maitre
b. 1965, Canada
Lives and works in Toronto, Canada
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025
at the end of the road- a mirror, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Toronto, Ontario
2016
title flight tiger compound returns, CANADA, New York, NY
2011
Chiral Eyes, EM Media, Calgary, Canada
2009
Edia, VIVO, Vancouver, Canada
2001
CANADA, New York, NY
2000
Interaccess Electronic Arts Gallery, Toronto, Canada
1999
The Kitchen, New York, NY
1998
Interaccess Electronic Arts Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Gallery 101, Ottawa, Canada
1996
Strike Three Gallery, Peterborough, Canada
Selected Group Exhibitions
2018
Are We In Sync?, SVA Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, NY
2017
Feedback #1, Marshall Mcluhan and the Arts, Westdenhaag, The Netherlands
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, Hannah Maclure Centre, Dundee, Scotland
2016
TIFF Cinematheque, Toronto, Canada
Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2015
Frieze London, CANADA, London, United Kingdom
Dallas Art Fair, CANADA, Dallas, TX
2014
The Weird Show, CANADA, New York, NY
Idea Gallery, Ontario Science Center, Ontario, Canada
Occam’s Razor, Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, Toronto, Canada
2013
Nada Art Fair, CANADA, Miami, FL
Land/Slide, Possible Futures, Markham Museum, Markham, Canada
TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto International Stereo Conference, Toronto, Canada
Pleasure Dome, New Toronto International Stereo Conference, Toronto, Canada
Art Cologne, CANADA, Cologne, Germany
Dallas Art Fair, CANADA, Dallas, TX
2012
Nada Art Fair, CANADA, Miami, FL
She Dreams in Code, Jacobs Pillow, Becket, MA
Screening of Stereo, Havana School of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba
2011
She Dreams in Code, Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY
Outlook Express, Eclectic Electrics, Meaford, Canada
2010
Interactive Futures Festival, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada
In-Site Toronto, Toronto, Canada
2008
I see Uranus, CANADA, New York, NY
2002
Prints + Chips, Bitforms Gallery, New York, NY
2001
Cino'matic Perception, The New Museum, New York, NY
2000
Art Center of Troy, Troy, NY
Le Mois Multi, Quebec City, Canada
Transmedia 2000, Toronto, Canada
1999
Sound Foundations, Bard College Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Mitsui Video Wall, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY
1998
Rencontres de Musique Actuelle, Montreal, Canada
New Work of Ontario, The Cinemateque of Ontario, Ontario, Canada
1997
The Edge '97, Artscourt, Ottawa, Canada
Body Electric Festival of Electronic Arts, Western Front, Vancouver, Canada