Stumbling onto the top floor of the graduate art studios, my maze-like journey through the Concordia Visual Arts building—which was slightly misled by the security guard ready to head home that bitterly cold last Friday before Christmas—came to an end when I spotted Marie-Danielle through a half-lit doorway. Placing aside the kettle she was tending to, I was greeted by a warm handshake and gratefully accepted a cup of hot tea as we moved past the distinctively coloured and textured half-cubicle workspaces of her fellow artists before reaching her studio.
Amidst black canvases illuminated with vivid portraits and tables of half-finished sand sculptures, to enter the creative imagination of Marie-Danielle Duval—a painter based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal—is to enter a beautiful and complex dialogue of identity. As a Senegalese-Québécoise artist, Duval’s work pursues themes of representation, storytelling, and intersectionality both in the context of contemporary social, political, and cultural discourse and through negotiations with the history of art itself.
Duval’s occupation as a professional artist was not always a path she saw herself on. “The craft of it was always there,” she remarks, thoughtfully, sitting across from me on an office chair. For Duval, committing to her artistry was a process of realization. Having grown up as one of the few Black women in a small Francophone town in Quebec, Duval’s artistry was greatly influenced by a search for an identity unlike the often enforced narrative of othering. Despite having contemplated many different fields, the visual arts became Duval’s most intuitive mode of expression:
“Art was the only way I could really talk about things without being censored [...]. [A]rt is free”.
With painting as her primary vehicle of expression, Duval emphasizes visibility and seeks to add nuance and diversity to representations of Black women, a goal that becomes apparent when examining her focus on portraiture. Duval employs a wealth of symbols, themes, and distinct stylistic choices to convey the boundaries she wishes to push in visual culture. Firstly, when looking around her studio, I find myself observing various images of women exhibiting what Duval highlights as “la vie quotidienne”, or, “daily living.”
Duval’s fascination with the daily lives of individuals points to her greatest source of inspiration: Stories. Originating from a lifelong love of fiction, Duval consistently turns to literature and its imparting narratives to inspire her own creative work. “There are so many unique stories” Duval remarks, passionately describing her favourite authors such as Toni Morrison and bell hooks. For Duval, the distinctive perspective of each story offers invaluable perspectives; drawing inspiration from literature imbues her works with the ultimate tool of understanding—empathy.
Similarly, Duval’s portraits of daily living aim to redefine what it means to be a woman of colour in painting by highlighting her subjects as the central points of her work. Through these scenes, which depict everyday interior spaces, Duval creates a sense of individuality and intimacy around her subjects, emphasizing their individuality and presence. In this sense, Duval’s works remain in a constant dialogue with the history of Western painting, in which the majority of depictions of women of colour were marginalized and confined to roles of servitude.
One work in which this is particularly evident is Duval’s [currently corresponding with the artist to receive the image and name]. In [name of work], Duval recalls Édouard Manet’s “Olympia,” in which the figure of the Black woman is not only portrayed in a role of servitude to Olympia, but also rendered nearly invisible in the background. Duval directly references art history while simultaneously questioning and recontextualizing its embedded symbols in the context of race and gender.
Another prominent motif in Duval’s more recent work—where she delves into sculpture along with her painting practice—is the sea and its mythology. Her early childhood near the coast of Southern Senegal and later years spent by the river in Saguenay drew Duval to symbols of water—particularly, mermaids. As timeless figures bridging mythological and contemporary settings, mermaids symbolize transformation and self-determination, allowing Duval to work through, with the exploration of racialized bodies, their dehumanization, and the long-standing conspiracy to control them.
Relating again to her passion for fiction, Duval also chooses to incorporate fantastical and mythological elements into her works as a way of symbolizing art’s ability to represent the impossibilities of reality. “Fiction can be true, but can also help us think beyond the bounds of what is real”, she describes.Duval’s work seeks to challenge how we see ourselves and each other, suggesting that fiction offers a space to explore new possibilities, ones that stretch beyond and project into a more equitable social reality.
Duval’s work pushes boundaries of both conceptual and technical innovation. By using black as a foundational canvas, she disrupts the conventional approach to painting, building light instead of shadows to create depth and presence. This unique use of colour challenges traditional norms, allowing her to infuse her works with a sense of radical redefinition. Here, the very medium becomes a statement. By embracing the black canvas, Duval highlights both the unique innovations of her craft and the larger question of what we accept as foundation.
Marie-Danielle Duval's work stands as a powerful exploration of identity, history, and the possibilities of representation in the contemporary art world. By focusing on the everyday lives of Black women, she challenges the historical marginalization of her subjects, positioning them at the forefront of her narratives. Duval weaves literary influences and fantastical elements into her work to transcend the confines of realism, urging us to reconsider what is possible in both art and society. In Duval’s studio, her canvases are not just spaces for artistic creation, they are platforms for the continuous redefinition of who we are and how we see ourselves in the world.
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