Gilbert Garcin | Mister G.

Exhibition Dates: July 24 – September 25, 2010

The gallery is pleased to present Gilbert Garcin’s first commercial exhibition in Canada.

Gilbert Garcin was originally the owner of a lamp manufacturing company in Marseille, France. Following a workshop during the Rencontres Internationales in Arles, under the direction of Pascal Dolemieux, Garcin, at the age of 65, gave up his business and began his photographic career. His work has been exhibited and collected around the globe, which satisfies his goal of sharing his ideas on life and his perspective on the world with the public at large.  In his photographs, Garcin poses as an ordinary ‘Mr. Everybody,’ dressed in an old overcoat. By placing himself, via the character he embodies, in absurd and inextricable situations, he invites us to ponder such philosophical quandaries as time, solitude and the weight of existence.

His work raises a number of universal questions about the meaning of human existence. The crudeness of his technique, combined with the intelligence of his themes, reflects an earnestness that embodies both the character and the creator. In regards to his use of humour, Garcin believes, “The kind of exercise I am doing with my photographs can easily become pompous, pedantic, or overly serious. It’s important to put a layer of humour right away, to let people enter into contact with the subject. Humour for me is not an end in itself, but thank goodness it’s there!”

Over the past fifteen years, Garcin has published four books and has had numerous international exhibitions. In 2009, he celebrated his 80th birthday with a traveling “Retrospective” exhibition. Garcin’s work is in many private and public collections including: Fonds national pour l’art Contemporain, France; Fonds Communal pour l’art Contemporain de Marseille, Marseille; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Artothèque de Veendam, the Netherlands; Artothèque de Nantes, Nantes; Artothèque de Vitré, Vitré; Médiathèque de Miramas, Miramas; Fondation Regards de Provence, Marseille; Galerie du Château d’Eau, Toulouse; and the West Collection, Philadelphia.