Jean-Marie Delavalle

1944–

Jean-Marie Delavalle (1944– ) has had an artistic career that spans nearly fifty years. Born in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Delavalle moved to Montreal with his family in 1954. In 1967 he graduated from the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and showed later that same year at the Youth Pavilion at Expo ‘67. He was then featured in multiple domestic and international exhibitions, through which he moved from painting and sculpting to conceptual art and photography in the 1970s.

Delavalle was interested in photography as a way of commenting on the process and machinery involved in producing the photograph, which also tied into his interest in projection as a display method. During this period, he came to prominence in the Montreal art community, showing in exhibitions across Canada, as well as at the VII Paris Biennial in 1971, where he represented Canada. Later in 1971, Delavalle also showed at the Royan International Festival of Contemporary Art in France, representing Québec. From 1973 to 1975, he widened his practice to include sound experimentations, which took the form of audio tapes and vinyl records recorded by the artist shown both on their own and in conjunction with his visual works.

Since the 1970s, Delavalle has shown in dozens of solo and group exhibitions across Canada and abroad, including The Record as Artwork from Futurism to Conceptual Art which toured Canada from 1977 to 1978; Pièces choisies at Gilbert Brownstone & Cie, Paris in 1990; The Sixties in Canada at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa in 2005; and Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965–1980 which toured across the country from 2010 to 2014. The bulk of his recent output, however, has been seen mostly in solo shows at Christopher Cutts Gallery in Toronto, which has represented him since 1992. Delavalle’s artwork can be found in the collections of many Canadian museums, including the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa; Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; and all major museums in Montreal.