PAULINE DUGAS

Pauline Dugas was born in 1957 in Caraquet, New Brunswick, where she has been pursuing an artistic career for nearly thirty years. A multi-disciplinary artist, she holds a bachelor of visual arts from the Université de Moncton.

In 2015, she completed 12 illustration boards for the children’s book Appi, lutin parfumeur, written by Marilou Savoie and published in the Fall of 2015 (Bouton d’or Acadie).

Along with other artists from the Acadian Peninsula, Pauline Dugas was a founding member of the Groupe Existe, a group of visual artists from Caraquet created in 1996. She also contributed to the development of Caraquet en couleurs, an event celebrating visual arts, which later became the Festival des arts visuels en Atlantique (FAVA).

For 20 years now, she has been helping to organize the FAVA, a festival wholly dedicated to visual arts well established in Caraquet, where it is held annually. She signed many of the FAVA’s themes, including Traversé par un paysage (2000), Variations sur quatre éléments (2001), Présage (2002), L’être Migratoire (2003), Bleu architectonique (2004), Rouge Vivarium (2005) and, more recently, Un monde flottant (2015). She will once again assume the position of artistic director for the festival’s 20th edition, held from 22 to 26 June 2016; the 20th edition will explore the theme L’enfance de l’art.  

Pauline Dugas has published two books of poetry (Éditions Perce-Neige, Moncton, New Brunswick) titled Fragment d’eau (2009) and Charpente matinale (2012). Her poetry was also included in Monika Boehringer’s Anthologie de la poésie des femmes en Acadie : 20e et 21e siècles. A number of her poems were also featured in the periodical Carnavalesques 5 « Voix des femmes des Amériques », published in Nancy, France in 2013 (Aspect).

In 2009, Pauline Dugas was co-curator for the visual arts symposium Espace Cathédrale 2009 : symposium d'art actuel de Caraquet. The symposium received an Eloize for Event of the year 2010.

For about 20 years, Pauline Dugas has worked in Acadian theatre, making costumes and creating set accessories. In 2014, in collaboration with Jean-Pascal Brideau, she created the children’s play Un congé sur mars. She created the costumes, accessories and puppets, to highlight a few of her contributions.

Visual arts

Over time, Pauline Dugas’ artistic work has been featured in many solo and group exhibits.

In 2014, she was invited by curator Herménégilde Chiasson to participate in the 50/50/50 exhibit, an eclectic portrait of visual arts in Acadia in which she displayed an ink drawing titled Figurine et son ciel.

In 2006, her series titled Cavales des crépuscules, which consisted of 15 acrylic paintings on 3” x 4”, was featured at the University of Moncton’s Galerie d’art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen.

She presented the tryptic painting Paradiso in a group exhibit organized jointly by the Musée acadien de Bonaventure and the Festival acadien de Caraquet. The travelling exhibition, called ArtCADIE : Vision de l’espace acadien, was shown in 2004 and in 2005 at the Galerie Bernard-Jean de Caraquet, as well as in Paris, in Nantes, in the Magdalen Islands and in Montréal.

Pauline Dugas’ series Rouages Lumineux (10 acrylic paintings on canvas) was shown at Le Café Phare restaurant in Caraquet, and her exhibition Ravissement irisé was presented at the Centre culturel francophone in Vancouver, in 2004.

In 1999, among other realizations, she created a visual performance called Ombres et lumière, in collaboration with fellow artist Michèle Bouchard. This performance was presented during the Moncton visual arts symposium Attention, le Mascaret ne siffle pas.

Pauline Dugas has participated in many group exhibitions organized by the Groupe existe, including Mordre la lumière, Mes amours, mes agrès, Popsurréaliste Acadie and Les chaises musicales, all of which were shown at the Galerie Bernard-Jean de Caraquet.