About SLEP (Sébastien Lépine)
Sébastien Lépine (SLEP) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Montreal, Canada. For the past ten years, he has created serigraphy posters for artists in the local music scene (Dumas, Zen Bambou, Bernhari, Groovy Aardvark, Tire le Coyote, Christ) and for internationally renowned musicians (The National, Nils Frahm, Sigur Ros, Cigarettes after sex). His graphic compositions have also featured in productions of the Montreal Opera and several Quebec films (Le bruit des arbres, Le météore, Manoir, Les petites vagues). His images are constructed like puzzles, with layers of colour that overlap and fit together. When it comes to poster-making, Sébastien is not the type of artist to wait for a commission. Music travels from his ear to the paper, with bands or musicians often receiving his work as a gift. A dialogue is then established between artist and musician. It is this kind of provoked encounter that Sebastien finds inspiring: works of art devoid of contractual obligations and coming from a simple love of music and large-format screen printing. A pure artistic expression. His more recent work in collage and painting is juxtaposed with his poster design approach and confirms the artist’s interest in intuition, abandonment, chance and surprise. Transparency and superimposition continue to feed his graphic practice, approached in the same spirit of composition as the image in fragments. Themes present themselves with a depth that does not need explanation: a destroyed world where beauty remains. The ghostly presence of the serigraphic motif transforms the canvas into a battleground between the free gestural exploration of painting and mechanical repetition, which, if it resurfaces, is always conquered by raw plasticity. Large format work is essential for true immersion and confident gestures, for the physical action it requires and the imprint that remains. The work thus aspires to hint at and reflect the world around it. His work has been exhibited in Montreal, at the Centre du design de l'UQÀM and at the Musée des beaux-art de Sherbrooke in 2017 as part of the exhibition L’art de la sérigraphie publicitaire au Québec, des années 1950 à nos jours, alongside works by Charles Daudelin, Vittorio Fiorucci, LINO, Tomasz Walenta and Séripop. In recent years, SLEP has traveled the world with his posters, with work promoted in Hamburg, Chicago, Austin, Barcelona and New York.
Books
En piste – 2023, français
Crossing the City bridge – 2022, anglais
Guest at MCAF
2024