Installation photo credit: Jeff McLane
Opening reception: May 30, 2026 4 – 6pm

Vielmetter Los Angeles is thrilled to present In The Mood for Deviance, the first West Coast solo exhibition of works by Montréal-based artist Lyne Lapointe, on view from May 30th through July 11th, 2026.

Lyne Lapointe (born 1957 in Montréal, Canada) has been widely recognized for her provocative early installations and architectural interventions examining the relationships between the marginalized body and the institution and has played an influential role in shaping feminist and queer discourse. Her mixed media works experiment with a variety of unconventional materials and techniques, skillfully collaging together figuration with found objects and plant and animal-derived substances. Driven by what she calls “an archaeology of memory,” Lapointe’s practice attempts to make tangible what is unseen and give form to explorations of subjectivity, desire, and bodily relationships to technology and the natural world.

Lapointe’s newest work uses playful surrealism and a distinctly queer perspective to portray vulnerable, non-conforming, and gender-fluid bodies as they pose and engage in mysterious gestures. Figures articulated in ink are adorned with found objects including crystals, shells, pearls, beads, gold leaf, and silk cocoons. The drawings and works on linen incorporate vintage elements and fragments of ephemeral materials into the pictorial space, imbuing the surfaces with a charged, otherworldly sensibility. Crushed bits of iridescent shell become a shimmering gown, a long neck is extended further by a swathe of gold, and a flurry of tiny beads create a bridge between detached body parts. In the work Miz Abalone (2024-2026) a female nude is embellished with small pearls that act as a gossamer shroud over her body, which in turn is encased in a frame embedded with lustrous pieces of abalone. These precious and precarious materials lend a heightened sense of fragility to many of the figures, while other nudes appear triumphant and impervious, armored in glitter. Lapointe’s figurative works resist easy categorization, giving equal attention to the vulnerability and tenacity of the deviant body.

For over four decades, the artist has exhibited her work in Canada, the United States, Brazil, and Europe. Her work has been featured in the São Paulo Biennial, the New Museum in New York, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, and in a major survey exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal that travelled throughout Canada and abroad to La Rochelle, France. Lapointe’s work is part of numerous public collections, including the Brown University Art Museum in Providence, the List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts. She is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, NY.

A documentary feature film, entitled Lyne Lapointe: The Spirit of Matter, premiered at the 2024 International Festival of Films on Art (Le FIFA) in Montréal and Québec City, and later screened in New York at the 2025 NYC Independent Film Festival.