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Alexis Janssen
Pursuing a Master of Arts (MA)
Art History
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. Alexis’ research critically investigates white European, American, and Canadian artists’ appropriations of global Indigenous peoples’ art. Using post- and anti-colonial approaches, he situates Canadian art within global dynamics of colonialism, his main case study being the celebrated Quebecois modern artist Paul-Émile Borduas (1905-1960). Alexis is also interested in exhibition practices, having worked at institutions including the McGill Visual Arts Collection and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. He was appointed to Concordia’s Public Art Advisory Committee in 2024 for a three-year term. 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 Extractive Modernism: Appropriations of African Art in Paul-Émile Borduas’ 1942 Gouaches”
Supervisor: Dr. John Potvin
Research Interests:
- Canadian art
- Quebec art
- Modernisms
- Exhibition practices
- Global Indigenous arts
- Transnational modernism
- Extractive Modernism
- Orientalism
- Surrealism
- Post- and anti-colonial, and anti-imperial theories
- Intersectional approaches to art history
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
- ARTH356: Studies in the Materials and Processes of Art: Fabricatory Knowledge, Prof. Rebecca Duclos
Research Assistantships:
- “When the Colonized Becomes the Colonizer: The Material Culture of the Luxembourgian Presence in the Belgian Congo, 1908-60,” Prof. John Potvin (2024)
- “From the Birthplace of Jazz to Montreal: Tracing the Spaces of Improvisation, Appropriation, and Resistance,” Prof. Cheryl Thompson (2024)
- “Diversity of Expression in Femina at the Musée du Québec,” Gwendolyn Owens (2022)
Publications:
- “Exhibiting Women Artists in 1940s Quebec: Femina at the Musée de la Province.” Le Carnet – Histoires de l’art au Québec, vol. 1, no. 1 (Winter 2024). Co-authored with Gwendolyn Owens.
- “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
Conferences:
- Hypotheses Conference (Montreal, 30 October 2024): “The Extractive and Transatlantic Modernism of Paul-Émile Borduas’ 1942 Gouaches”
- The 11th Annual Wollesen Memorial Graduate Symposium (Toronto, 19 October 2024): “Extractive Modernism in Paul-Émile Borduas’ Abstraction no. 36 or Deux Masques [Two Masks] (1942)”
- American Council for Quebec Studies 23rd Biennial Conference (Quebec City, 3 October 2024): “‘I Have Never made Designs for Fabrics… And I Hope I Never Shall’: Paul-Émile Borduas, ‘Primitivism,’ and Mid-twentieth Century Interior Design”
- Third Annual Graduate Conference of McGill University’s School of Religious Studies (Montreal, 11 May 2024): “Le formalisme inventif et l’iconographie ancienne de la commande à Norman Laliberté pour la chapelle Birks de l’Université McGill”