A multidisciplinary artist from Montreal, Joann Côté studied fashion design at Marie-Victorin College. She is primarily self-taught, and has participated in several workshops with renowned masters in areas such as sculpture, creative painting, engraving, photogravure and the interpretation of modern art in Europe, the United States and Canada.
Joann Côté combines several ancient and avant-garde techniques in her works, such as etching, photogravure and digital printing. She is also interested in art as performance through "sculptural-dresses" worn by live models and uses various unusual materials such as bread, waste, and environmental materials. She also experiments with bronze sculpture, which she presents with unexpected accents.
Her works are found in many collections around the world.
Artist statement
"Through a vague idea, such as a memory or a dream, I present my subject between the border of fantasy and reality or the subconscious memory of it. I try to create surreal effects between these worlds in order to destabilize the observer, and bring them into a mysterious world where they can reclaim it in relation to their own emotional memory."
Over the years, Joann Côté's artistic work has evolved towards a more feminist and manifesto-like approach.
As an artist, she captures and observes certain intolerances and injustices in today's society which she transcribed intuitively.
With sculpture and collage, she tries to translate the complexity of certain sociological and ecological issues. Seduced by the poetry of raw material, she appropriates any substance malleable by diverting it from its original function. A fragile balance oscillates between the social commitment of its purpose and the singularity of the material used.
Denouncing, supporting, criticizing or provoking is a fundamental concern in the development of each artwork and reflect as certain portrait of the artist's identity or the society she lives in.