Samuel Roy-Bois

^{Samuel Roy-Bois, Relatively Speaking, 2017, wood, paint, glue, nails and fabric. Gift of the artist, 2021. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography; Samuel Roy-Bois, Sovereign (ladder and mattress), 2019, chromogenic print mounted on Dibond, edition 1 of 3. Purchase, 2021. Photo courtesy the artist}

Samuel Roy-Bois

Samuel Roy-Bois’s artistic practice involves the creation of sculptural and site-specific installations along with performance, photography, drawing, and writing. He is concerned with the conceptual and material definition of space and the way the built environment contributes to our understanding of the world. Roy-Bois’ architectural structures point to the ways in which human experience is inextricably linked to manufactured things and spaces and how the greater meaning of our existence is mediated through things.

Relatively Speaking was the first sculpture created for a new body of work originally exhibited at the Esker Foundation in 2020. The standing lattice-like wooden structure, with three micro-fibre rags draped over different squares, references the history of modernism — particularly the rigid grid compositions of 20th century Dutch painter Piet Mondrian — and the precariousness of extractive systems and building practices in contemporary cities.

Sovereign (ladder and mattress) is part of a series of momentary, precariously composed sculptures that exist only long enough to document; these sculptures are experienced by the viewer through the photographs.

Samuel Roy-Bois has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Paris, and Denmark. In 2013 Roy-Bois created a new work for SFU Gallery, Not a new world, just an old trick, which became a travelling exhibition and publication between SFU Galleries, Carleton University Art Gallery and Oakville Galleries. Roy-Bois is Associate Professor in Creative Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus, where he leads an interdisciplinary lab for creative exchange, The Research Studio for Spaces and Things. Roy-Bois has an MFA Degree in Studio Arts from Concordia University (Montréal) and a BFA from Université Laval, (Quebec City). Roy-Bois received the 2021 VIVA Award.