Critical Abstraction and Radical Transcendence:(Michel Luc Bellemare) | Page 2

This money-go-around is a closed system, a self-legitimating system, where the major participants are
universities, the state, i.e. the 3 levels of government, and a plethora of minor appendages such as
newspapers, magazines and a web of seemingly privately owned galleries, who are all aligned to
dominate the arts in favor of the state and its ideology, in order to construct an artificial line-up of stateapproved, ideology-supportive artists.
Notwithstanding, there are genuinely independent galleries and people who are making a living in the
arts on the outskirts of the cronyist-networks of the state and its artistic ideologues, talking heads, civil
servants and academic art pundits bent on inflating a select few for the benefit of a select few. A living
can be made on the outskirts but it requires an artist to function according to a different ethical
parameters, different artistic tastes and a different methodology. An artist on the margins of the art
world does not have the luxury of snobbery, hypocrisy and the pedestal of moral superiority, an artist on
the margins of the art world has to be more open-minded, more accepting of differences in definitions,
points of views, methods and people. “By any means necessary” is the central dogma by which to
subsist in the isolation, the boredom and the genuine lack of interest that the wilderness of the art
world’s outskirts is. In that wilderness, there are pockets of support, financial and otherwise, but these
pockets are veiled beneath the toxic sludge of the white-noise and the meaningless-ness that the State
and its art cronies spew towards the periphery, towards its wilderness. This exhibition is both a victory
and such a pocket of liberty, which sustains independence, creativity and free will for an artist, who
from the perspective of State and its artistically bias networks, can only be an Anti-Christ, a destroyer of
reified art worlds.
Artwork Title: “Red Power/OKA-1990: (Canadian Land is Native Land. There will be no reconciliation,
unless it be on our own terms)”.
Short Bio:
In his work, Michel Luc Bellemare explores the possibilities of critical abstraction, i.e. color-realism, which
is a new form of abstract art designed to articulate something concrete and meaningful about our contemporary postindustrial society via pure abstraction painting. Moving beyond abstract-expressionism and the litany of neoabstract-expressionists, Michel’s work attempts to establish a new lexical interpretation of pure abstraction,
capitalizing on its multi-dimensional nature by utilizing its radical subjectivity to say something meaningful about
contemporary society through the re-interpretation of the tenets of abstract art and abstract painting. The
fundamental premise of his art is the notion that “abstract art is the continuation of philosophy via other means.
Abstract art is real actions that revolutionize conventional standards, specifically conventional practices and
aesthetic standards through critical analysis, critical critique, creative re-interpretation and constructive innovation
of outdated standardized art-forms and conventional ways of doing and seeing things”.
Born in Ontario and currently residing in Ottawa, Michel Luc Bellemare is a professional abstract artist of
Métis Aboriginal descent. He is the author of 3 books (Artworks), one of which titled: Color-Realism: (The Essence
of Color and Reality) is in the National Gallery of Canada’s library and the others, i.e. Nomologism and The
Machine, are housed in the National Library of Canada. Moreover, Michel has exhibited internationally and his
artwork can be found in various museums etc. He has taught both at the University of Ottawa and Carleton
University in various capacities as a professor.