Né en 1958, vit et travaille à Montréal

1998 Galerie Patricia Dorfmann, Paris
1994 Galerie Patricia Dorfmann, Paris
1994 Château de Nedde, Limousin, France
1994 CIAC Centre International d'Art Contemporain, Montréal
1993 Stux Gallery, New York
1993 Galerie Verticale, Québec (Québec)
1992 / 93 Galerie Brenda Wallace, Montréal
1991 Galerie Verticale, Québec (Québec)
1991 Galerie Brenda Wallace, Montréal
1990 YYZ, Toronto
1990 Galerie Séquence, Chicoutimi (Québec)
1989 Galerie Obscure, Québec (Québec)
1989 Galerie Optica, Montréal
1988 Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge (Alberta)
1987 La Chambre Blanche, Québec (Québec)
1986 Galerie Dazibao, Montréal
1985 Galerie Dazibao, Montréal
1985 Axe néo 7, art contemporain, Hull (Québec)

1993 Les égarements de la photographie, Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris
1993 L'art Prend l'Air. Vol parallèle, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal (exposition itinérante)
1992 Diagonales Montréal, CIAC - Centre International d'Art Contemporain, Montréal
1992 La traversée des mirages, Palais du Tau, Reims, France
1992 De la curiosité: petite anatomie d'un regard, Dazibao, Montréal
1991 Anninoventa, Galleria d'arte moderna, Bologna, Italie
1991 Post-scriptum à René Payant, Maison de la Culture Côte des Neiges, Montréal
1990 Transatlantique, Le Botanique, Bruxelles
1990 Vision 90, CIAC Centre International d'art Contemporain, Montréal
1990 Tandem II, Galerie Dazibao, Montréal
1989 Exposition d'ouverture, Galerie Brenda Wallace, Montréal
1989 Tandem I, Galerie Dazibao, Montréal
1988 Regard sur la photographie actuelle au Québec, Galerie Séquence, Chicoutimi (Québec)
1988 Lise Bégin, Roberto Pellegrinuzzi, Diane Poirier, Michael Snow Galerie VU, Québec (Québec)
1987 London Life Young Contempories '87 (exposition itinérante), London Regional Art Gallery London, Ontario
1987 5ème coup d'éclat, Michel Tetrault, Art Contemporain, Montréal
1987 Paysage, (exposition itinérante), Galerie Dazibao, Montréal

The fact that green leaves are sensitive to light is no longer a secret for anyone; the fact that this reactivity lends them their inherent vitality and chlorophyll colour is basic knowledge; but the fact that photosynthesis bears a literal, though uncanny resemblance to photography is something that the Canadian artist Roberto Pellegrinuzzi demonstrates with singular virtuosity. Attracted to the macroscopic and labyrinthine structure of foliar tissue, he constructs walls of leafy images, outsized enlargements of the undaunted encounter between a searching lens and tree leaves permeated by light. The resulting photographs are literally pinned up in special boxes similar to the cases used to display butterflies. These boxes are then used like bricks to erect a new form of monument to the glory and memory of the number one iconic force in our time: photography.

Much has been said in the course of this century about the teetering aspirations that characterise the medium of photography, the major discovery of modernity, and in particular the application of its power to enlarge images, render them breathtaking, guiding us over the surface of the tiniest and most insignificant things: a uniquely harmless atomic explosion, occurring in a process used essentially for scientific discoveries and research. We are confronted here with a specific artistic approach that forces the whole to render the detail, to remain a cletail within the entirety of details.

In the past, Pellegrinuzzi has applied the inherent quality of photography to reconstitute the outward, visible appearance of reality by covering articles of furniture with their exact photographic image. With the resulting three-dimensional copy, Duchamp's idea of the readymade thus came full circle, and photography was able to confess its, original sin of relentless mimicry.

The relation between photography and sculpture has invariably been one of servitude and halting interactivity. The specific status and bi- dimensionality of the one estranged it from the basic volumetry of the other, although there have been well-known attempts at reconciling the two throughout this century, as proven by the somewhat tumultuous intrusion of photography into the select club of major art forms. Roberto Pellegrinuzzi reserves a special place for the initial frames designed to accommodate photographs, depriving them of their parietal umbilical, and lending a new dimension to the notion of partition, facing, and of the work of art as such.

This Quebecois artist treats photography within its familiar, closed boundaries, resisting the temptation to force it beyond its margins. He presents a unique genealogy, reminding us that leaves come from trees that provide the wood used to make the frame, as well as paper, hence the leaf. The circle is complete.

Text by : Ami Barak

Dominique Baqué, Montage et métissage : la photographie impure / Montage and cross breeds : impur photography, ArPress International, France, no 186, Dec. 1993

Sylvie Parent, Roberto Pellegrinuzzi, Ciel Variable, été / summer 1993

Marie-Michèle Cron, Plaques Sensibles, Le Devoir, 9 janvier 1993, p. 11

Sylvain Campeau, De la curiosité, petite anatomie du regard, Parachute, no 68, oct-nov-déc 1992

Vincent Lavoie, Roberto Pellegrinuzzi, Parachute, no 64, oct-nov-déc 1991

Sylvain Campeau, Roberto Pellegrinuzzi - De la photographie à l'objet (de la photographie), Parachute, no 63, juil-août-sept 1991

Michael La Chance, Un usage dispersifde la mémoire, Spirale, Montréal, été 1991

Sylvain Campeau, De la «nature» morte de la photographie, Spirale, Montréal, été 1991

Richard Rhodes, Roberto Pellegrinuzzi - YYZ, Artforum, April 1990

Kitty Scott, Fast Fomard, Canadian Art, vol.6, no 4, winter 1989

Earl Miner, Pellegrinuzzi and photosculpture, Azure, Match 1990

Sylvain Campeau, Le mois de la photographie, ETC, no 10, hiver 1989

Michael La Chance, Rupture d'un réel majestueux, Cahiers, volume 10, no 37, avril 1987, p. 22

Johanne Lamoureux, Noir et blanc: précis d'usages plus ou moins vagues, Esse Hors série no 2, janvier 1988, p.41

Chantai Pontbriand, Histoire de la modernité, Parachute, no 47, juin-juil-août 1987

Jacques Doyon, Roberto Pellegrinuzzi, Parachute, no 46, mars-avril-mai 1987

René Payant, La passion de laphotograpbie, Spirale, no 67, février 1987, p. 15

Serge Bérard, Roberto Pellegrinuzzi, Parachute, no 41, déc-jan-fev 1986, p.25

René Payant, Architecturer la photographie, Spirale, no 55, octobre 1985, p. 7

Les égarements de la photographie, texte de Dominique Baqué et Catherine Bédard Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, 1994

La traversée de mirages, photographie du Québec, texte de Olivier Asselin, Transfrontière, 1992

De la curosité: petite anatomie d'un regard, Olivier Asselin et Vincent Lamie, Dazibao, 1992

Anninovanta, texte de Renato Bariffi et al Nuova Alla Editoriale, Milano, 1991

10 monographies de jeunes artistes montréalais, texte de Thérèse St-Gelais, Editions Parachute, Montréal, 1991

Tombeau de René Payant, texte de Alain Laframboise et al, Centre d'exposition et de théorie de l'art contemporain (CETAC) Editions 3, Lavai (Québec), 1991

Photo-Sculpture, texte de Lesley Johnstone Editions Artexte, Montréal et Studios d'été, St-Jean-Port-Joli (Québec), 1991

Roberto Pellegrinuzzi, texte de Olivier Asselin Galerie Brenda Wallace, Montréal, 1991

Transatlantique, texte de Marie Fraser, La lettre volée, Belgique, 1990

Mirabile visu, texte de Gilles Arteau, Les centres d'artistes du Québec, Québec, 1990

Le mois de la photographie à Montréal - 1989, textes de Hélène Taillefer et Brenda Wallace, Le mois de la photo, Montréal, 1989

Roberto Pellegrinuzzi, texte de Marie Perreault, Southern Art Gallery, Lethbridge, 1988

Regard sur la photographie actuelle, texte de Michel Gaboury, Galerie Séquence, Chicoutimi (Québec), 1988

Paysage, texte de Serge Bérard Dazibao, Montréal, 1987

London Life Young Contemporaries, texte de Marnie Fleming, London Regional Art Gallery, London, 1987

Projets d'artistes, Parachute, no 50, p.46

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, 1993
Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, 1993
Crédit Lyonnais, Montréal, 1993
Musée Canadien de la Photographie, Ottawa, 1992
Air Canada, Montréal, 1991
Banque d'oeuvres d'art, Conseil des Arts du Canada, Ottawa, 1991
Fond National d'Art Contemporain (FNAC) de France, 1991
Musée du Québec, Québec, 1990