Galerie CAVA Gallery ( Centre d'arts visuels de l'Alberta), Les rencontres improbables \ Unlikely Encounters
SITE #: Galerie CAVA Gallery (Centre d'arts visuels de l'Alberta)
9103 95 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T6C 1Z4
François Michaud
Les rencontres improbables \ Unlikely Encounters
EXHIBIT DATES: May 28 - July 10, 2026
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 9:30am - 5pm
Wednesday: 9:30am - 5pm
Thursday: 9:30am - 5pm
Friday: 9:30am - 5pm
Saturday: 10am - 4pm
Sunday: Closed
Work by François Michaud.
Three artists. One invitation to experience art differently.
CAVA presents a new exhibition bringing together distinct artistic voices through contrast, dialogue, and unexpected encounters.
In the Members’ Space, works by Ola Bowinga and Nadia Tanguay, explore unique and complementary perspectives.
In the Exploration Space, Improbable Encounters by François Michaud (BC) builds a visual world shaped by chance, tension, and discovery.
URL for online programs: https://galeriecava.com/categorie-evenements/expositions/
ABOUT THE ARTIST(S)
François Michaud
My artistic practice explores the way we inhabit the world through simple and familiar objects: a chair, a red boat, a globe, a teddy bear, or a stalk of wheat. Removed from their original function, these objects become symbolic figures carrying traces of human presence as much as absence.
Through cut-paper painting and sculpture, I create hybrid environments where vegetation, objects, and animal forms coexist. Landscapes play a central role in this process: forests, fields, and vegetal structures become spaces activated by light, where the gaze shifts between depth, surface, and fragmentation. The scale of the works, combined with the repetitive gesture of cutting, creates a dialogue between drawing, sculpture, and the memory of landscape.
The animals integrated into some of my works are metaphorical presences—silent witnesses to human behavior and contemporary upheavals. Often placed in improbable situations, they introduce an open-ended narrative dimension oscillating between unease and poetry.
My work investigates the tension between rootedness and displacement. Themes of contemporary nomadism, forced migration, and transformations of the landscape move through the works without ever being illustrated directly. Rather than producing explicit narratives, I aim to create spaces where viewers experience sensations of passage, fragility, and adaptation.
The shadows created by the paper extend the forms into space, creating a shifting and organic presence. My installations propose less a fixed discourse than a sensory experience: that of a world in transformation where humans, objects, and landscapes are still attempting to coexist.