BGL (active from 1996 to 2021)

In February 2015, three shipping containers filled with thousands of objects were loaded from the docks of the Port of Quebec onto a cargo ship bound for Venice, Italy. These materials were destined for the Canada Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, the most prestigious international contemporary art exhibition, where they would be assembled into the installation Canadassimo by the BGL collective. In a poetic twist of history, Quebec City was reciprocating centuries of trade flowing in the opposite direction by exporting to the heart of Catholic Europe an abundance of allegorical artifacts, meticulously crafted from recycled materials in BGL’s studio in the city’s Lower Town. Once in Venice, Canadassimo transformed the Canada Pavilion into a 1970s-style corner store, a massive sound-emitting slot machine, and an artist’s studio filled with hundreds of paint cans dripping with colourful substances.  This colossal project—a reflection on the rampant consumerism of North American civilization—drew the contemporary art world’s attention to the Québécois collective.

For Jasmin Bilodeau (b.1973) from Lac-Mégantic, Sébastien Giguère (b.1972) from Arthabaska (now Victoriaville), and Nicolas Laverdière (b.1972) from Quebec City, the journey began at Université Laval’s École d’art. In 1996, the three classmates formed an art collective under the name BGL (from the first letters of their surnames). “One dreamy, another mischievous, and the third more of a laid-back Californian,” said their sculpture professor, David Naylor, who added that the trio’s dynamic outweighed the individuality of its members. The collective’s early exhibitions at Quebec City’s artist-run centres—Peine débuté, le chantier fut encore (Hardly Started, the Site Remained), 1997, at L’Œil de Poisson and Perdu dans la nature (Lost in Nature), 1998, at La Chambre Blanche—revealed the ironic and biting tone that would come to define their practice.

BGL’s life-size installations are crafted from humble materials, such as reclaimed wood: Poêle à bois (Wood Stove), 1997, the Mercedes from Perdu dans la nature (la voiture) (Lost in Nature [The Car]), 1998, and the above-ground pool from Perdu dans la nature (la piscine) (Lost in Nature [The Pool]), 1998, all provoke astonishment, smiles, and reflection. These are whimsical creations, ingeniously constructed. “We’re not great technicians,” admits Laverdière, “but our clumsiness adds a certain poetry to our work.”  The three create in the tradition of Pop art yet infuse their pieces with a critical stance on waste and overconsumption, grounding their work in principles of recycling and reuse.

The Musée du Québec (now the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec) quickly recognized the work of the collective by acquiring their early wood installations, Perdu dans la nature (la voiture) and Perdu dans la nature (la piscine) in 2000 and 2003, respectively. Other institutions, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, soon followed suit. Several key milestones have also marked the trio’s career, including their nomination for the Sobey Art Award in 2006 and their participation in numerous biennials, such as Manif d’art (in 2001, 2005, and 2017), as well as in pivotal exhibitions like Oh, Canada at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2012 and the Venice Biennale of 2015.

In 2021, after twenty-five years of international acclaim and intense production—including over a hundred exhibitions—the three decided to dissolve the collective due to the difficult financial realities of being an artist. “We’re scraping by,” said Laverdière, “and we’re almost 50.”  Each member would continue his creative journey on his own. In the summer and fall of 2021, the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown celebrated their achievements with an exhibition called BGL: Two Thumbs Up Arts and Crafts.