Vieille Valise
Untitled 14-05
Untitled 14-04
Untitled 14 - 03
Untitled #6
Untitled 03-15
Untitled 01-15
Untitled 04-15
Untitled 05-15
Untitled 6
Untitled 10-16
Untitled 1b-07
Untitled 10-08
Untitled 10-07
Untitled 3a-06
Untitled 10-04
Untitled 10-12
Untitled 10-05
Untitled 10-09
Untitled 10-19
Untitled 2b-09
Untitled 11-04
Untitled 11-02
Alain Attar
Born in Fez, Morocco, 1957
Price range: $1300-$10,000
When I start to paint, I generally have no idea what I am going to do, and I only discover, little by little, as I paint, what is being created. A kind of dialogue between the canvas and me begins to take place, and it is within this dialogue that what may be termed the « painting » is born, as Matisse understood so well when he said; when he drew what he felt, his action was like that of a man groping in the dark to find his way. In the painting act, it is not always the eye that guides the hand: the hand can also guide the eye.
The route one takes, the dialogue one begins, are not planned or preconceived. Going down these roads requires an openness and receptivity to the unpredictable and unexpected, similar to the way one feels as a child, discovering an object for the first time, free of any analytical or affective judgment. In this experience there is a primeval, initiatory force, a beginning, a birth.
The act of painting carries within itself something primal, each painting reinventing a new object, a new reality, a new space. In this sense, the act of painting is the « exercise of freedom ».
I do not give my paintings titles, in order to not control the viewer, since only the viewer can decide on the meaning of what he or she is looking at. As such, the viewer is also free. - Attar
EDUCATION
1983 MA, University of Montréal, QC
1990 MA, University of Montréal QC
1980 BA, Université du Québec, Montréal, QC
1978 BA in Arts, Cegep Lionnel Groulx, Montréal, QC
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011 Recents works, Sopa Gallery, British Columbia
2010 Recents works, Buguera Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
2009 Recent works, Jacana Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2008 Recent works, Jacana Galley, Vancouver, British Columbia
2007 Recent works, Atelier gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2006 Recent works, Gruen galleries, Chicago, Illinois, USA
2006 Recent works, Wallace Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
2005 Fragment, Bugera Gallery, Alberta
2005 Recent Works, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2004 Liens, Ingram Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
2004 Kibo Galerie, Seattle, U.S.A
2004 Wallace Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
2003 Recent Works, Kmet Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
2002 Memory, Wallace Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
2002 Recent Works, Atelier Gallery, Art auction Museum of Vancouver
2001 Surfaces, The Buguera/ Kmet Galleries Ltd. Edmonton, Alberta
2001 Between past and present, Ingram Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
2001 Memories, Kibo Galerie, Seattle, U.S.A
1999 Between, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1998 Memory of Forgotten Doors, Simon Patrich Gallery, Vancouver, British Colombia
1997 Remembrance, Smolin Center, Vancouver, British Columbia
1996 Francophone Cultural Center, Vancouver, British Columbia
1995 Café des Arts, Vancouver, British Columbia
1994 Théâtre le Gésu, Montréal, Québec
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2012 Sopa Gallery, British Columbia
2012 Gruen galleries, Chicago, Illinois, USA
2011 Sopa Gallery, British Columbia
2010 Wallace Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
2010 Jacana, Gallery, Vancouver, British Colombia
2009 Kibo Galley, Galerie, Seattle, U.S.A
2008 Wallace Galleries, Alberta
2007 Sopa gallery, British Columbia
2007 Jacana Gallery, British Colombia
2006 Galerie St Laurent + Hill, Ontario
2005 Art Ark Kelowna, British Columbia
2005 Gruen galleries, Chicago, Illinois, USA
2005 Art Auction, Art for Life, British Columbia
2004 Art Auction, Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia
2004 Abstracted, Atelier Gallery, British Columbia
2004 Art Fair, Ingram Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
2003 Wallace Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
2003 Art Auction, Art for Life, British Columbia
2003 Denise Roberge Gallery, Palm Spring, California, USA
2003 Art Auction, Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia
2002 Wallace Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
2002 Art Auction, Catalogue, Toronto, Ontario
2002 Art Auction, Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia
2002 Art Auction, Art for Life, British Columbia
2002 Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2001 Art Auction, Catalogue, Toronto, Ontario
2001 Wallace Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
2000 The Bugera / Kmet Galleries, Alberta
2000 Abstraction, Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1999 Art Auction 99, Catalogue, Vancouver, British Columbia
1999 Wallace Galleries, Calgary, Alberta
1998 International Art Exhibition, New York, U.S.A
1998 Art Auction, Art for Life, British Columbia
1998 Art Auction 98, Catalogue, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1997 Art Auction, Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia
1996 Gallery Joan Lovett, Vancouver, British Columbia
1992 Saide Bronfman Centre, Montréal, Québec.
COLLECTIONS
Alain Attar’s works are included in various corporate and private collections in Canada, United States and Europe, including:
Serena Strum Architects, Chicago
Uniglobe Travel Ltd, Calgary, AB
CGI Corporate collections, Vancouver, BC
Foly, Hong and Elliot, Washington DC
Forfront Productions Corp. Vancouver, BC
Western Bayshore Hotel, Vancouver, BC
Canadian Pacific, Ltd, Calgary, AB
Haywood Securities Inc, Calgary, AB
Lotus Resources Ltd, Calgary, AB
City of Calgary, AB
Hudson Ethnic design, Mexico
Pan Canadian (CEO), Calgary, AB
Passon Investments, Calgary, AB
Collection McLeod and Cie, Calgary, AB
Kibo African art, Seattle, WA
Collection Maxxam development, AB
Collection M. Alhadeff, Seattle, WA
Collection Guenneguez, Seattle, WA
Collection 21 Century, Toronto, ON
Collection Peng, Hong Kong
Collection Jan Sewell, Seattle, WA