Simon Petepiece

Working directly with construction materials and processes, Simon Petepiece’s practice addresses and derives meaning from the unique qualities of the Western-built environment. In works that range from and exist between sculpture and two-dimensional media, he uses ubiquitous products like drywall, steel studs, and debris netting as both symbolic elements and substrates for drawing, painting, and embroidery. 

Petepiece’s approach is driven by an interest in the materiality of industrial products, their cultural significance, and emotive quality. He aims to make objects that feel both derived from and incongruous with these materials, partially adhering to and distorting how they are used to construct space. The assemblies that arise from this process combine this inherited materiality with forms gathered from personal and historic references. Working in a cyclical way, these architectural elements shift between drawings and sculptures, where objects from imagined spaces become physical artifacts and vice versa. 

Combining the innate language of cheap industrial materials with applied layers of meaning and narrative, Simon Petepiece offers the viewer a means of connecting to and questioning how our society conceives of and constructs space. Through this process of personalizing and manipulating the materiality and construction of architectural spaces, the work hopes to create alternate ways of understanding the environments we inhabit on a daily basis.

Simon Petepiece lives and works in Montreal and holds a Master’s degree in architecture from Carleton University (2018). Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montreal (2023) and Espace Maurice, Montreal (2023), as well as group shows at DS Galerie, Paris (2024) and at the City Hall Art Gallery, Ottawa (2022). His work can be found in the City of Ottawa Art Collection. 

Recent exhibitions

Selected Artworks

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