Louise Belcourt

Belcourt splits her time between a remote, rural town in Quebec, Canada, where she works out of a converted barn overlooking the St. Lawrence river, and her longtime studio in south Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with its vast views of the East River and Manhattan skyline. Her dual residence has a significant impact on her paintings, which blend impressions of the countryside and crisp Canadian light with city rhythms and the blocky architecture of New York City. Belcourt’s imagery evokes forms from prehistoric “mound-builders” to urbanized landscapes, while creating a visual language distinct from a purely representational or abstract syntax. The artist employs a directness, physicality, and visual clarity in her paintings that feels increasingly rare in our media-driven digital age.

Louise Belcourt was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1961 and has resided in New York City since 1984. Recent solo exhibitions include Mounds (2012) and Paintings (2010) at Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY; In the Land (2009) at Les Jardins de Metis, Quebec, Canada; and Water, Land, Mammal (2005) at Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA, among others. Her first solo shows in New York City were with Annika Sundvik Gallery (1996) and Peter Blum Gallery (1997). Belcourt has received numerous awards and grants including the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (2015), the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2012), and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2000). Collections include the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the Aspen Contemporary Art Collection; the Progressive Art Collection; Nokia Corporation; Deutsche Bank; the Cultural Ministry of Quebec; and the Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont. She is a 2017 recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.