Geneviève L'Heureux
printmaking estampe

Geneviève L'Heureux was born in Montréal, Québec, Canada. She earned a Bachelor of Architecture from Université de Montréal and, in 1994, a Master in History and Theory of Architecture from McGill University. She practiced architecture as principal and co-founder of an internationally renowned architecture firm until 2002. The work of the firm was awarded several high distinctions and prizes, namely the Canadian Grand Prix d'Excellence in 1998 and the Canadian Rome Prize in Architecture 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, a longing she had since discovering the medium in Rome. Printmaking has been her main occupation since.

 

Her artistic work, whether drawing or print, attempts to express what belongs to the senses, to touch with evocative and emotional work. She proceeds to do this by bringing together light and darkness, mass and lightness, opacity and transparence. In her work, these notions purposefully coexist and this coexistence creates a sense of movement and transience, and of calm and peace. Her methods of choice include etching, aquatint, water bite, spit bite and mezzotint.

 

Geneviève's printmaking work has received multiple accolades. Recently, Intersection received the Arun Bose Memorial Award from the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) and Geneviève is a semifinalist at the 98th ANNUAL International Competition of The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA. 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.