Michel de Broin’s work ranges from assemblage to video and photography. His multifaceted production deals with energy flows, entropic devolution, and the forms of visual, spatial and technological paradox that derive from these forces. Most of his works are retooled everyday appliances: found objects that disclose an ironic re-utilization not only of the mechanic universe but also of tropes of Conceptual Art and Minimalism, which in his hands open hypothetical possibilities. Crafting unforeseen relationships between waste, productivity, risk, and consumption, de Broin defamiliarizes established modes of signification in everyday technical environments.
A mid-career survey of his work was mounted by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, last year. De Broin has had a number of solo exhibitions such as Reciprocal Energy, at Musée d’art contemporain Val-de-Marne, France; Reverse Entropy at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Disruption from Within at Plug In, Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, Canada; Épater la Galerie at Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany. Group exhibitions include; Car Fetish. I drive, therefore I am, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland; Acclimatation, Centre d’art Villa Arson, Nice, France; Untethered, Eyebeam, New York, NY; and Au courant, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
His public art works and commissions in the last decade have included Dendrites, 2017, Montreal; Threshold, 2017, Montréal; Interlude, 2016, Québec city; Bloom, 2015, Calgary; Possibilities, 2012, Mississauga; Interlace, 2012, Changwong; Majestic, 2011, New Orleans; Revolution, 2010, Rennes; Arc, Montréal, 2009; La maîtresse de la Tour Eiffel, 2009, Paris; Overflow, 2008, Toronto; Encircling, Christchurch, 2006; Shared Propulsion Car, 2005, New York and 2007, Toronto; Révolutions, 2003, Parc Maisonneuve-Cartier, Montréal.
Recipient of the 2007 Sobey Art Award, de Broin has also received grants from the Harpo Foundation (Los Angeles) and Krasner-Pollock Foundation (New York). Most recently, he has been awarded a residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York City.
Michel de Broin currently lives and works in Montreal.
