Geneviève L'Heureux was born in Montréal, Québec, Canada. She earned a bachelor degree in Architecture from Université de Montréal and, in 1994, a masters degree in History and Theory of Architecture from McGill University. She practiced architecture as principal and co-founder of Atelier in situ until 2002. The work of the firm was awarded several high distinctions and prizes, namely the Grand Prix d'Excellence in 1998 and the Rome Prize in 2001. It is in Rome that she developed a passion for printmaking.

 

Geneviève moved to San Francisco in 2000 where she currently lives with her family. After teaching architecture at the California College of the Arts for several years she turned her focus towards printmaking. Printmaking has been her main occupation since 2012.

 

Her artistic work, whether drawing or print, geometrical or figurative, attempts to express what belongs to the senses, to touch our humanity with evocative and emotional work. She proceeds to do this by challenging the well accepted theory that contrasting concepts (dark/light, mass/lightness, line/surface…), stand as polar opposites and, consequently, that we live in a world of extremes and of exclusion. In her work, these notions purposefully coexist and this coexistence creates tension and instability. Her methods of choice include etching, aquatint, water bite, spit bite and mezzotint which she uses to simultaneously convey precision and expression.

 

Her printmaking work has received multiple accolades. Two years in a row she was the recipient of an Artspan's Amplify Award (jurors Philip Bewley, 2020 and Annette Schutz, 2021) and she received the 1st place Award from Art Room Gallery's International Juried Art Competition Black & White. Fracture III was awarded 1st Place Juror’s Choice by juror Colleen Terry of the Achenbach Foundation at the Bay Area Prints! 2019, at Compound Gallery in Oakland, CA. She received 1st Place Prize from juror Carrie Dedon of the Seattle Art Museum at the Ninth Annual Juried Exhibition of Gallery 110 in Seattle, WA for the ensemble of her work, and at The Contemporary Print 2019 of PrintAustin in Austin TX, Bernini of the Hands series was awarded the PrintAustin Award. Miranda K. Metcalf honored Adrift IV with the Juror’s Choice Award at the international juried exhibition Political Impressions of the Print Club of Rochester, NY, while Adrift II received the 2nd Place Prize at the national juried competition Immersed in Abstraction at The Ellington-White Contemporary, NC.