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Alexis Janssen
Alexis Janssen (he/him) is a MA student in Art History at Concordia University in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal. He holds a BA with First class Honours in Art History from McGill University and a DEC in Anthropology from Vanier College. Alexis’ research critically investigates the appropriation of art from African, Asian, and Australasian Indigenous peoples by settler Canadian artists. Using post- and anti-colonial approaches, Alexis situates Canadian art within global dynamics of colonialism. His main case study is the celebrated Quebecois artist Paul-Émile Borduas (1905-1960). Alexis’ research is generously supported by a Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art Research Fellowship and a Concordia Fine Arts Scholarship.
Working Thesis Title: Beyond European Primitivism: Appropriating African Art in Paul-Émile Borduas’ Œuvre
Supervisor: Dr. John Potvin
Research Interests:
- Quebec art
- Canadian art
- Twentieth-century art
- Primitivism and Orientalism in Quebec art
- Post- and anti-colonial, and anti-imperial theories
- Intersectional approaches to art history
- The Automatistes and Prisme d’Yeux
- Surrealism in Canada
Teaching Assistantships:
- ARTH 375 Issues in the Montreal Art Milieu Special Topic: Art and Visual Culture in Montreal: the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, Dr. Johanne Sloan
Publications:
- “Exhibiting Women Artists in 1940s Quebec: Femina at the Musée de la Province.” Le Carnet de l’ÉRHAQ, no. 5 (Fall 2023). Co-authored with Gwendolyn Owens. Forthcoming.
- “Deux tableaux, deux mesures : la réception de la race aux Salons du Louvre de 1741 et de 1800.” Canvas Journal, no. 22 (Fall 2022). Reissued in print, Winter 2023.
- Exhibition Review. “Forgotten! Scott, Brandtner, Eveleigh, Webber: Revisiting Montreal Abstraction of the 1940s at the Musée de Joliette.” Library Matters. McGill University Library.
Exhibitions:
- From Ukiyo-e to Woodblock Printmaking: A Celebration of Japanese Art from the Edo Period to the Present Day — 1 April 2023-31 May 2023