Virginie Bocaert

Virginie Bocaert was born in France but immigrated to Montreal in 2002. Coming from a family of art lovers, her passion for the arts developed naturally. After graduating from École Supérier de Mode in Paris she began a brief career as a fashion designer. Remnants of her past in the fashion world are still visible in her work today as she uses these elements in order to communicate impressions and emotions.

Virginie Bocaert’s emotionally inspired paintings are like breathlessly diving into the figures that emerge from the depths of her backgrounds. In her latest series, each work exudes a raw passion. Bocaert’s style has evolved by her use of both photography and paint on her canvases with the figures becoming much more developed, and taking on a strong personality of their own.

The focus in Bocaert’s recent imagery is the expression of the soul. The visage was formerly less of a presence in her past work. Now, the face begins to emerge from the canvas, revealing its crucial role in expressing the powerfully evocative essence of the spirit. The depiction of hands, which are less conspicuous in Bocaert’s previous paintings, are now more pronounced. They are, in their own right significantly expressive, and represent the passing of time and life events.

In the beginning, Bocaert’s career in fashion had a major impact on her painting. Her most recent work maintains some influences from the fashion world in her themes of fragility and delicacy. Her figures are created by combining photography and paint. She begins by freely applying paint to her canvases and her figures develop organically. She is then able to build up the layers of colour creating a true personality in each of her works. Her comprehension of the female figure and the way in which it can express feeling comes through in each of her works and captivates the viewer.

Bocaert’s new series manages to captivate the viewer with her ability to connect her subject’s emotions with those experienced by her audience. Bocaert reinforces the inseparable nature of the physical and emotional, externalizing the souls and desires of the subjects.