Olicorno
​@olicorno

Olicorno is a self-taught visual artist from Saguenay, Quebec. Based in Montreal since 2009, he works mainly in painting, installation art and performance art.

Following the completion of a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration at HEC Montreal in 2012, Olicorno became involved in his artistic practice full time in 2013, buoyed by the success of his first series of blindly created performance paintings "Beauty Is What You See". 

Olicorno has had the opportunity to not only perform in Montreal, including TEDx Montreal and the Centre National d'Exposition de Jonquière, but also to take his art on the road to New York, Winnipeg, Mexico City, Barcelona, Paris and Geneva. His visual works have been exhibited in several residences across Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia, and can also be found in various public collections, including the Senate of Canada in Ottawa, HEC University in Montreal, the National Exhibition Centre and the Public Service Alliance of Canada collection.

Artistic approach
"My fascination with the cosmos was born around the years 2012 to 2015, when I was focusing on physical and performance art. This art form was initially a rebellion against normality, comfort and the status quo for me. One thing led to another, and these early artistic beginnings - and this break with normality - soon led me on a tormented and haunting quest to understand my place in the Universe. My eyes were suddenly dangerously open. Why me? And why life? Why today? And why time? and space? why? You know, those questions that have fed children, artists and philosophers for millennia.

My thirst for knowledge was a vigorous life drive. A will to cling to the walls of a world that we feel is already swallowing us. A need to understand our place and our legitimacy in this world. We tell ourselves that by becoming a scientist, and by knowing everything, we will find the answers to the questions that are scratching our hearts and terrifying us.

I sought to equip myself by turning to quantum physics and astronomy, which I studied avidly. In doing so, I opened two doors to the infinite, the immeasurable and the infinitesimal. Two violent vertigoes that tossed you around like dust on a floor, and which, to my surprise, softened and moderated the importance I gave myself in the world. I understood my proportional location and my limited duration; a first step towards a new detachment, and towards this questioning of the too heavy importance I was giving to sciences.

I understood that the Universe was not only a scientist, but that it was also a poet, a mystic, and that it knew how to communicate with us by the symbolic way. Around 2016 I turned to the study of symbolism and archetypes. I first initiated myself to the techniques of Buddhist meditation according to the Vipassana teaching. Then my initiatory journey led me to travel to meet shamans in the mountains of southern Mexico. I also received for a year the teaching of the mythology specialist Luc Bigé, who guided me on the path of the language of the unconscious, of mysticism and of the symbolic path.

The paths are numerous and go in many directions, and it is through my art that I find a clear synthesis and consolidation of ideas that evolves and builds continuously from one project to the next. Over the past few years, my projects "Bones", "Kids" and "Witnesses to Greatness" have been important vehicles and pillars of this research into symbolism, one of the main fruits of which is the development of my own symbolic vocabulary."

---

Selection of artworks

---

Press and media

Press
Simard, Roxanne: ''L'artiste Saguenéen Olivier Corneau exposera à New York'', Ici.Radio-Canada.ca, 23 septembre, 2018
Brisson, Annie-Claude: “Olicorno au CNE, à l'aveugle, à la loupe”, Journal Le Quotidien, Saguenay, mai 2018
Geneviève Lapalme: “Calendrier Culturel, les incontournables,” Ici.Radio-Canada.ca, Manitoba, septembre, 2016
Journal Métro, ''Olicorno Bones,'' Journal Métro, Montréal, Québec, 9 septembre, 2016
Journal 24h, ''Olicorno Travaux Récents,'' Journal 24h, Montréal, Québec, 1er septembre, 2016
Olivier Gagnon, ''Performer sa vie,'' Magazine Fugues, Montréal, Québec, 21 juin, 2016
Audrey-Anne Maltais, ''Privation sensorielle, Olicorno peint à l'aveugle,'' Journal Le Courrier du Saguenay, 6 juin, 2016
Éric Clément et Mario Cloutier, ''La virée des galeries,'' Journal La Presse, Montréal, 10 mai, 2015
La Presse, ''Step Inside The Process» Le performance art vu par Olicorno,'' Journal La Presse, 15 octobre, 2015
Kelli Sturkenboom, ''Rack Galerie brings Emerging Artists and Exclusive Events to St-Henri,'' The Main Mtl, Montréal, 11 novembre, 2014
Vanessa Guimond ''Socio-financement, la voie de l'avenir,'' Le Journal de Montréal, Montréal, 10 novembre, 2014
Justine Lalande Church, ''Quand l'ambition de l'artiste multidisciplinaire Olicorno ne veut pas se taire,'' Bible Urbaine, 17 octobre, 2014
Éric Santerre, ''Entrevue avec l'artiste Olicorno,'' Magazine Men of Interest, Montréal, 7 juillet, 2014
Pierre-Luc Desbiens, ''De Saguenay à Montréal à pieds,'' Le Journal de Québec, Québec, 29 septembre, 2013
Laura Lévesque, ''Une quête interactive et artistique,'' Journal Le Quotidien, Saguenay, 21 septembre, 2013

TV and radio
​NVL, Noovo.tv, Septembre 2018​
Julie Larouche, ''Olicorno at the National Exhibition Center,'' Le téléjournal, ICI Radio-Canada, Saguenay, Qc, 15 avril, 2018
Denis Fortier, “Olicorno at the National Exhibition Center,” Médium Large, Ici Radio-Canada Première, Montréal, Qc, 22 mai, 2018
Rachel Lagacé, “Nuit Blanche Winnipeg (interview),” CTV Morning Live, CTV Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1er octobre, 2016
Geneviève Lapalme: “Beauty is what you see (interview)” Ici.Radio-Canada.ca, Manitoba, 23 septembre, 2016
Renaud Doucet, “Olicorno à la Maison des artistes visuels francophones (interview),” Envol 91.1 FM, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 22 septembre, 2016
Yves Parents, ''Olicorno,'' Émission 2 pour 1 de passion, Bell télé Fibe, Montréal, Qc, 20 novembre, 2014
​Linda Bergeron, ''Jonquière-Montréal à pieds'' ICI Radio-Canada, Saguenay, Québec, 21 septembre, 2013

Bibliography
2017    Contemporary Performance Almanac 2017, by Caden Manson & Jenna Nelson, NYC, USA
2016    Olicorno 2013-2016, by Heather Lynn & Olicorno, Montréal, Canada
2016    Contemporary Performance Almanac 2016, by Caden Manson & Jenna Nelson, NYC, USA

---

Collections

Institut National, Montréal
Senate of Canada, Ottawa
La Maison Des Artistes Visuels Francophones de Winnipeg
Galerie Angers, Montréal
Artothèque, Montreal
Alliance de la Fonction Publique, Montreal
Centre National d’Exposition, Saguenay
Touché! phd, Montreal
Substance Stratégies, Montreal
Mont-Tremblant
HEC Montréal, Montreal
Private Collections (150+, Canada, USA, Spain, France, China)