Artist Statement – Karine Guyon

Driven by an expressive urgency to apply paint and make marks intuitively, without overthinking the process, my work has gradually evolved to include a hierarchy of recurring shapes, embodying themes of loss, existentialism, and psychonautics. As a child, I experienced the deeply humbling and transformative journey of losing my mother. The lifelong consequences of grief have left an indelible mark on the way I navigate the world. Lately, those experiences have found their way into my work. Childhood memories of happier times, cherished toys, and forgotten moments have resurfaced, informing my color choices and overall aesthetic. The tension between rigid structures and chaotic spaces mirrors the inner experience of loss and the search for balance through order. For me, painting grids serves as both a psychic map and a portal, bridging the material and spiritual realms. The representation of grids has become a form of meditation, an escape route, and a method of remembering and documenting, turning the canvas into an archive.

Time is a dynamic force in my work, as each painting evolves through recurring cycles of layering, mark-making, scraping, and scratching the surface, processes which can last for years. Within these layers, I bury and excavate unconventional materials such as metallic, light-reactive pigments, and other light-reflective matters. This approach to constructing a painting refers to the cyclical nature of life and the passage of time on surfaces. As I layer and scrape the paint, large amounts of discarded material accumulate on the floor. I often re-manipulate these remnants, transforming them into three-dimensional paintings reminiscent of artifacts and relics. Through this continual process of destruction and renewal, I invite a deeper connection to the human experience, exploring its cycles of loss, transformation, and the dialogue between the temporal and the eternal.

Biography

Karine Guyon is a self-taught artist who has lived and worked in major Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa as well as in Barcelona, Spain. She is currently working in Montreal. She has exhibited her work at Diane Farris Gallery; Van., LES Gallery; Van., Chatham-Kent Gallery; ON., Propeller Gallery; TO., The Science and Technology Museum of Ottawa; ON., The Hamption Gallery; MTL., Galerie POPOP Gallery; MTL., I Like Your Work; NY., and Deanna Evans Project; NY., Art Mur, MTL and the Canopy Studios in NYC.

Her work was selected by a jury to be part of the 2024-25 Canopy Program, resulting in an exhibition in Chelsea NYC in June 2025 . In 2022-2023, fifteen of her paintings were purchased by Turveta Holdings; Dubai. Her paintings can also be found in other corporate collections such as the Porter Housing Society; VAN and the Simon Fraser University; Van. Her work can also be found in private collection in Canada, Europe and New Zealand.

In 2015, Guyon has received the Emerging Artist Grant awarded by Ontario Arts Council. From 2019-2022 she has been awarded several Operating Art Grants from the Montreal Council for the Art and the City of Montreal. In 2023 she was the recipient of Les Fonds Serge Lemoyne and in 2025 was a finalist for the grant FORCGAL. Guyon has received several private art grants for her collaborative analog and digital installation entitled ‘‘Kaleidoscopy’’.