Yoakim Belanger

Art Brokerage: Yoakim Belanger Canadian Artist: b. 1967. Yoakim Belanger's art focuses on the human form. He is fascinated by movements, expressions, plasticity and their universality. Across various media (painting, drawing, photography and video) Yoakim Belanger sublimates the physical appearance of humanity and celebrates its strength, passion and grace. In his paintings, through a work of removal, sanding and alterations on metal plates, Yoakim reaches a vibrant and textured brushwork that merges the abstract and the figurative, order and chaos, shade and light. With this work, the artist reaches his ultimate goal of portraying both body and soul. Belanger works with oxidized steel and aluminum, raw materials that have not yet been affected by human contact but that hold the traces of passing time. These traces consist of varying textures and patterns, which to any other individual would appear arbitrary and meaningless. But, to Belanger, these traces hold the primitive blueprint of his work. With his brush he begins to bring forth an image, that is so entwined with the medium on which it is painted, that one could not exist without the other. The result is a juxtaposition of the intangible human spirit with the solidity of the metal. Listings wanted.