Art Statement
My practice investigates the invisible architectures of social life—the systems, norms, and boundaries that shape how we move, relate, and belong. Drawing on my background in criminology, I examine the forces that simultaneously connect and divide us, revealing the structures that quietly govern our daily existence.
Working in oil painting, I navigate the tension between figuration and abstraction, layering surfaces, shifting perspectives, and introducing disruptions to challenge the illusion of stability in contemporary society. My work inhabits the space where the architectural meets the organic, and where individual experience intersects with collective condition.
Each piece operates as a psychological landscape, mapping human presence through traces of construction, erasure, and resistance. In doing so, my practice becomes both a social observation and a personal reckoning, reflecting my own position within the systems I seek to make visible.
Former criminologist turned full-time artist, Marie-Chloé Duval is a New York–based painter whose work explores the unseen structures shaping human connection and social experience.
Biography
Marie-Chloé Duval is a Canadian-born, New York–based visual artist, educator, and arts leader with a distinguished international career. Since committing to painting full-time in 2016, she has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across North America and Europe, received multiple awards, and completed prestigious artist residencies.
Beyond her studio practice, Duval is a dedicated advocate for the arts: she has served on multiple boards, curated exhibitions, led community initiatives, and founded an alternative art space that champions emerging and underrepresented artists. She is also an experienced educator, teaching and mentoring across age groups and disciplines.
Duval holds degrees in Criminology (BA, MA) form Montreal University, a BFA from Concordia University, and an MFA from the New York Studio School, combining rigorous scholarship with a visionary approach to contemporary art practice.
EDUCATION
2023–25 MFA – Fine Arts, painting and drawing, New-York Studio School, New-York, Usa
2020– 23 BACC – Fine Arts, painting and drawing, Concordia Universitym Montreal, Qc
2014 – 2016 MSc – Criminology research, University of Montreal, Montreal, Qc
2010 – 2013 BACC – Criminology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Qc
Solo exhibition - selection
Architecture of human ties, Union gallery at Wagner College NYC, Usa, 2026
The evidence, New-York Studio School NYC, Usa, 2025
The fullness of the emptiness, BEKA museum NYC, Usa, 2025
The evidence of us, Art Gohtam gallery NYC, Usa, 2025
Systèmes solitaires, Maison de la culture Villebon Beloeil, Canada, , 2024
Lost Human Found Jungle, Nicolas Auvray Gallery NYC, Usa, 2023
Malgré les marées, Valence art gallery Montreal, Canada, 2023
We are here, Wagner college Spotlight gallery, NYC, Usa, 2023
Group exhibition - selection
Root-Place, NYSS project space, Curator Merewyn Wirth, NYC, USA, 2026
Assertion, Nicolas Auvray Gallery, NYC, Usa, 2025
100 works, Kentler international drawing space, NYC, Usa, 2025
Alumni Exhibition, Mercedes Matters, New-York Studio School, NYC, Usa, 2025
Elements of the anthopocene: rebirth and decay, Dorothy circus, London, UK, 2025
I belong (t)here, Eye on arts, juried show at 7house gallery, NYC, Usa, 2025
Context Art fair, Nicolas Auvray Gallery, Miami, Usa, 2024
Close up from Afar, Westbeth Gallery, NYC, Usa, 2024
Art on paper fair NYC, Nicolas Auvray Gallery, NYC, Usa, 2024
Convergence, Du soi au Nous, Valence art galerie, Montreal, Canada, 2024
Anonymus was a master piece, New York Studio School,NYC, Usa, 2024
Encan annuel, Eco Musée fier du Monde Montreal, Canada, 2024
Metempsychosis, Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice, NYC, Usa, 2024
Exposition bénéfice, Musée du Bas-St-Laurent Rivière-du-Loup, Canada, 2024
A member’s selection, Provincetown Art Association Museum Provincetown, Usa, 2024