Francine Poulin Speaks volumes
- Elsa Vincent
- Dec 11, 2025
- 1 min read
Francine Poulin is a well-established abstract artist who has exhibited her works across the city. Her works possess a tension that keeps the viewer guessing, noticing new things with each new glance. She only has two pieces on view during Introspection, and they both have a lot to say.
Désunion is the larger of the two, the canvas awash in dark umbers and ochers tensely layered together. Two figures stand off-center, back-to-back, their thin outlines emerging from the textured acrylic. The composition appears sad at first, with the figures turned away from us as if in despair, but Poulin is actually illustrating a passageway to hope. The figures represent a detachment from the self. One is turned towards the darkness, the other towards light. When we can abandon the part of ourselves that craves misery, then we can finally approach joy.
Fantomes errants! is more aligned with Poulin’s classic style with swatches of white inhabiting hunched figures against a pale blue background. The abstract shapes form a city in the distance, perhaps one covered in ice and snow. Although people walk the streets, they are faceless shadows of themselves in a ghost town. Deeply resonant in this snowy time of year, Poulin contemplates the loss of self - and city - when we fail to acknowledge our communities.
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Come see Francine Poulin at Galerie d’Art Emergence’s Introspection exposition until December 24th.
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