Born in Montréal, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in visual arts, Marie-France Brière lived in Italy and then earned a master’s degree in visual arts at the Université du Québec à Montréal (1989). She has been very active in public art since the early 1990s, and her work can be seen in numerous public buildings all over the island of Montréal, including at the Cinémathèque québécoise, the Société des arts technologiques, and the Palais de justice de Montréal.
Artwork description
The artwork consists of a grid formed of book shapes and made of felt laid over an abstract composition made of marble, plaster, and sliced books. Paying tribute to the Québec poet Marie Uguay, Brière produced this artwork to meet the main constraint of the competition: the theme of the book. The artwork testifies to the sculptor’s love of working with materials and abstraction activated as a poetry of forms.