iconTechnique: Mixed media
Joanne Corneau was born in Chicoutimi in 1952.
After her training in fine arts at the University of Quebec in Montreal, Corno began to pursue a career in painting. The Montreal gallery Clarence Gagnon decided to take her under its wing shortly after her graduation.
Towards the end of the 1980s, she became the darling of Montreal collectors and her works are among the most sought-after Quebec creations. Her reputation then spread to the rest of Canada and she exhibited in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver. She presented some works at the Quebec Pavilion in Vancouver during Expo 86, which largely contributed to her growth. At that time, she was represented by Galerie Yves Laroche and was already among the most respected artists in the country.
Her growing success stimulates her to penetrate the American market. This is how she entered the visual arts scene in Boston at the Morgan Gallery, then at the University of San Diego, but it was the city of New York that appealed to her the most. Corno moved there in 1992. She first participated in group exhibitions and a number of artistic events.
Following in the footsteps of Georgia O'Keefe and Salvador Dali, she subsequently exhibited at Steuben Glass Gallery on Madison Avenue in New York. Everything tells her that the best is yet to come.
The new millennium brought Corno to the Opera Gallery in Soho which began to represent her with enthusiasm. A few years are enough for this renowned gallery to propel the artist to the top of the list of its most coveted artists. Subsequently, Corno's works can be found permanently in New York, London, Paris, Venice, Monaco, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Dubai.
Corno's international success is enviable. Her new expressionism style which combines fine figurative details and explosive gestures resonates with a clientele of collectors who are constantly renewing themselves: generations succeeding each other. We can attribute this strong enthusiasm for her creations to the play of colors that she brilliantly creates combined with her textures applied with generous brush strokes which greatly attract the eye.
Although New York is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Corno, her emotional and symbolic home base remains Quebec, more particularly Montreal. No wonder she presents her work in the metropolis on a regular basis. Each exhibition, more interesting than the previous one, leaves little respite for the artist, always in search of summits to climb. This is the case in 2015 where she presented the memorable Corno Peinture event live at the AKA Gallery. Taking advantage of the presence of a few male models present for the evening, Corno painted their torsos in front of a crowd of 300 admirers who had been waiting for this moment for ages. Daring and a bit provocative, this fundraising evening for the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Foundation proved to be a resounding success. A donation of approximately $20,000 was then given to the Foundation under the approving eye of Dominique Michel, who was then spokesperson. Other stars such as Diane Dufresne, Geneviève Borne, Patsy Gallant, André Sauvé, Guy Corneau (brother of the artist) and Guy Édoin also take part in the event. The journalists interview Corno in bursts. Among these columnists, we find Pénélope McQuade for her eponymous show, Josélito Michaud, Benoit Dutrizac, and several others on TV and radio channels TVA, LCN, Ici RDI, Global TV, Radio 9, 98.5 fm, NRJ, Rouge fm and TARGET.
Corno died in 2016 at the age of 64.