Yann Pocreau: Towards the Light
January 22–April 5, 2025
University Gallery
Curator: Gaëlle Morel
Montreal-based artist Yann Pocreau’s first solo exhibition in Toronto, Towards the Light, delves into the transformative qualities of light in photography, examining the very essence of the medium. Known for his abstract, minimal compositions, Pocreau uses diverse light sources—moonlight, sunlight, artificial and coloured lighting—and employs camera-less techniques, such as photograms, to explore light’s impact on photosensitive surfaces. Moving beyond representation, Pocreau’s poetic experiments reveal how light itself becomes the subject, tracing ephemeral imprints in subtly shifting visual effects. This exhibition invites viewers to witness the elemental nature of photography through Pocreau’s distinctive vision.
Public Programming
Artist in Conversation: Yann Pocreau and Sophie Hackett
Wednesday, February 12, 2024
7 p.m.
Yann Pocreau, Lumière 01 [Lights 1], 2015, projectors with slide frames. Courtesy of the artist
Bios
Yann Pocreau
Quebec City–born artist Yann Pocreau (b. 1980) lives and works in Montreal. Comprising photography, sculpture, installation, and projection, his multimedia practice has been presented both nationally and internationally, including at Les Rencontres d’Arles, France (2019), and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2021). His work is part of numerous public and private collections, such as those of the National Bank of Canada, Hydro-Québec, the City of Montreal, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Montreal), the Musée d’art de Joliette and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Quebec City). His permanent public art installation Les diamants irréguliers was inaugurated in downtown Montreal in 2024. Yann Pocreau is represented by Galerie Blouin Division, Montreal and Toronto.
Gaëlle Morel
Gaëlle Morel has been the Exhibitions Curator at The Image Centre since 2010, during which time she has curated dozens of exhibitions and written and edited numerous publications. Her latest projects include Stories from the Picture Press: Black Star Publishing Co. & The Canadian Press; Mary Ellen Mark: Ward 81; and Lee Miller, a Photographer at Work (1932-1945). In 2009, Morel was the guest curator of the photography biennial, Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal. She is currently an instructor in the Film + Photography Preservation and Collections Management graduate program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Morel holds a PhD in the History of Contemporary Photography from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Exhibition Catalogue
Les épreuves élémentaires (Elementary Proofs)
This publication brings together the works of artist Yann Pocreau, works about light, or at least about the essence of light from a philosophical and aesthetic point of view. The artist has conceived the book as he would an exhibition, each page interacting with the next through meticulously chosen details to alter our perception with each reading. Three authors lent themselves to the game of writing with different perspectives on Pocreau's work, making it vast and intriguing.
Following an artistic residency at the Mont-Mégantic Observatory, the artist's relationship with art and, by extension, the world, was profoundly transformed. His attitude as a researcher leaves room for the indefinable and the impermanent through the beauty of the image.
"Despite spending a lot of time preparing for a scientific experience, on those glorious nights at the Observatory, beautiful even when it was cloudy, what I saw astounded me. While I was preoccupied with very specific questions about light, what I realized on the night of July 20, 2018, on top of that mountain, was that my real mindset was one of wonder suffused with cosmic vertigo; a tremendous oceanic feeling."
- Yann Pocreau
