Thomas Corriveau earned his BFA from Concordia University (1979–81) and his MFA from the same university (1988). He taught in the visual arts department of the University of Ottawa for 12 years. Since 2002, he has been a professor in the School of Visual and Media Arts at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Since the early 1980s, he has participated in numerous exhibitions, and his works are in multiple private and public collections. He has also created 15 works of art integrated with architecture in Québec.
Artwork description
Valet de trèfle is located in the central stairwell of the Centre des loisirs de Saint-Laurent. This serigraph on plywood is deployed on two walls and rises to the ceiling.
The work offers a stimulating pictorial experience thanks to the assemblage of printed fragments that form an image with many possible readings. The mural contains elements that are recognizable at a glance: brightly coloured moving figures invite a playful reading. The familiar figure of the jack of clubs in a deck of cards refers to loyalty, generosity, and mutual assistance. Like this figure, the green field symbolized by repeated clovers and alternating meander motifs, arrow sashes, and triangles evokes a number of symbolic and metaphoric connections to the place, its vocation, and its users. Visitors may see in it the themes of play and recreation or of multiculturalism.