Jean Brillant

Canadian sculptor born in Rimouski, Quebec, in 1959. In 1968, his family moved to the south of France. He was very young when he discovered stone-cutting in Vaucluse. This discovery of the material later led him to the École supérieure d’art in Aix-en-Provence (1979) and then to Dijon’s Écoles nationales supérieures d’art (1983) before he attended the Université du Québec à Montréal (1983-1984) upon his return to Canada. From then on, aware of differences between the means used in Europe and Canada to develop the plastic arts, Jean Brillant presented his first works in a Montreal art gallery, Galerie Daniel, beginning in 1988. Enriched by his Canadian roots and the discovery of the art world through North American and European galleries, he gave free rein to his imagination, assembling and contrasting natural elements and industrial remnants without restriction.

He has had several solo exhibitions in Canada (Galerie Daniel and Galerie Madeleine Lacerte), and in France (Monaco’s Galerie Pierre Nouvion and Toulon’s Galerie Remp’art). Since 1994, Jean Brillant has been creating outdoor sculptures, which has led him to gradually break away from the traditional market offered by art galleries. Several of his works are currently included in public collections (MNBAQ, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Musée régional de Rimouski) and private collections (Bombardier Foundation, Lavallin, Steelcase).

Jean Brillant now lives in Canada where he occupies a former industrial factory that has been transformed into an artist’s studio in the heart of Montreal.