Roland Poulin

Roland Poulin (born 17 April 1940) is a Canadian contemporary sculptor whose work is characterized by its horizontality and weightiness. He has lived in Sainte-Angèle-de-Monnoir, Quebec, since 1986.

Career Poulin was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, and with his family moved to Montreal in 1944. He had a job as an assistant graphic designer in an advertising agency when a colleague took him to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and he saw The Black Star by Paul-Émile Borduas.

Work Poulin's career as a sculptor falls into two main periods. In the late 1970s, his work leaned towards American Minimalism. His sculptures had simple forms and were made of inexpensive industrial materials such as glass, plywood, wire mesh and reinforced concrete. Concrete was his choice for an important series organized around a central empty space, with individual titles such as Without (1979, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec). Later pieces, such as Thresholds (1993, National Gallery of Canada) are increasingly oriented towards the spiritual.

Selected exhibitions 1971 - Structure immatérielle, Laser beams and rays of light, Roland Poulin, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton; Art Windsor Essex; Musée des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa;

Commissions 1974 - Plein air '74, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal; 1977 - Art Park - The Program in Visual Arts, Earl W. Bridges Artwork, Lewiston, New York;

Awards Ozias-Leduc prize (1992) from the Fondation Émile-Nelligan; Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts (2005).