Artist Info
Elisabeth Belliveau
A published author of four graphic novels and an interdisciplinary artist, Elisabeth Belliveau, works in stop-motion animation (video), drawing and small-scale sculpture. Her strategies for making art are low-tech, do-it-yourself with an emphasis on rudimentary materials. Thus, soft animal sculptures are made from discarded clothing like mitts, and plasticine is used to create sculpted objects for her videos. The artist has described her work as braiding stories, history and everyday life together, employing intuition, curiosity and material exploration. A soft sculpture, Whalemit Senior was included in the Made in Calgary: 2000s exhibition, Glenbow Museum (Calgary, AB).
Besides her graphic novels, Belliveau’s stop-motion animation is also a venue for her narrative-style drawing. There is her 2012 Go so we may see (lady of gold arms doom), selected for the 2013 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art and her 2009 Margaret’s Mountain based on her grandmother, featuring articulated cut-out drawings in the video and toured as part of the AFA’s Trex Program (2015-2016).
Belliveau obtained a BFA Honours, Sculpture (2001) from Alberta College of Art + Design (Calgary, AB) and an MFA Studio Arts (2009), Concordia University (Montreal, PQ) where she was awarded the William Blair Brucebo Scholarship. Her work has been screened and exhibited internationally including venues in Cuba, Berlin, London, Czech Republic, Sweden and across North America. She has attended residencies including Banff Centre, Women’s Studio Workshop, NY and the National Film Board of Canada. Belliveau instructed at the Grande Prairie Regional College and now at Concordia University in Montreal where she is currently based. She was recently awarded the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres de Quebec studio residency for Tokyo Wondersite in Japan for 2017.
