Living with Dying: Grief, Loss, Beauty and Joy
Library, mixed media construction, 80 x 30 inches, 2021
Mario Laplante works in a variety of mixed media including drawing, painting, printmaking, and artist’s books. He teaches at San Francisco State University where he is currently a Professor and the head of the printmaking area. Laplante received his BFA from Concordia University in Montreal Quebec. He graduated with an MFA from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1989. He exhibits regularly and his work is represented in a number of public and private collections including: The Bibliotheque National du Canada, Museum of Modern Art in New York, The New York Library, the Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Iraq National Library, Baghdad, Iraq.
Mario Laplante
About Library Mario writes:
In 1984, I started tearing up old prints, book covers, and drawings which I have meticulously saved and archived. These accumulated bits and pieces, a library of stored memories, have inspired me to recontextualize my past experiences in this artwork. Why this piece for Living with Dying? You can see the remnants from previous work which have been collaged into multiple layers, they are a history of my life. The multiplicity of elements coalesce to represent the trajectory of moving through life’s passages. I invite you to seek out some of the moments. One of them is the hint of a black and white etching from 1985 created in Montreal, Quebec. It evokes my French-Canadian origins and my deep connection to family. Another is the combination of lithographs, printed while I was a graduate student in Madison, WI, where I began my career as a professional artist and began a deep artistic collaborative relationship with Diane Fine, one which has flourished over the last 30 years. Library is my celebration of the amazing path my life has taken.