Ephemeral Language / Langue éphémère

For Montreal based artist Sébastien Gaudette, paper is an endless inspiration. A surface for writing, painting or crafts, it can be ripped from a notebook and after a few quick folds, fly across the room as an airplane.  

His curiosity and fascination with paper takes many forms. The most dramatic are large site-specific sculptures created directly on the gallery walls. Folded, crumpled and twisting, these paper sculptures bloom outwards, venturing out onto the floor like mysterious beings brought to life.  

And while every piece in the exhibition is about paper, and looks like paper, not everything is actually made of paper. Post-it Notes and notebook pages hang on the walls, hosting doodles, notes to self, and splatters of paint. Each work feels effortless, but Sébastien meticulously crafts these works from of aluminum - cutting, folding, shaping and painting over painstaking hours until the illusion is perfect. 

Across the room, colourful pages of crumpled paper seem to burst from their elegant frames. But these too are illusions, spectacular trompe l’oeil creations made with acrylic and spray paint. Upon closer inspection, each is perfectly flat.  

An artist, illusionist and technician, Sébastien’s Ephemeral Language / Langue éphémère embodies wonder. Playful illusions, growing in ambition and complexity, all celebrate the beauty and ingenuity of paper.  

Sébastien Gaudette, Les trompe-l’oeil de papier, 2024, mixed media on sculpted aluminum plates; Sébastien Gaudette, Abstraction Bleue, 2024, paper installation; Sébastien Gaudette, Wheat Field, 2024, mixed media on sculpted aluminum plates; Sébastien Gaudette, Colour Fantasy No. 1, 2025, acrylic and spray paint on paper; Portrait of Sébastien Gaudette, 2025.