Born in 1969, Isabelle Hayeur grew up on Montreal’s North Shore, in Quebec. At the time, this suburban region was rapidly expanding, and the changes underway gave her a sense of disorientation — a feeling often associated with life on the outskirts of the city. This experience of accelerated urban sprawl, marked by the disappearance of landscapes and habitats, would prove decisive for her artistic path. Later in life, a diagnosis of neurodivergence helped her better understand her affinity for feelings of alienation, displacement, and disenchantment.
Since the late 1990s, she has explored the territories she encounters, questioning how contemporary societies shape and inhabit them. In today’s socio-economic landscape, she is troubled by the ongoing transformation of places, ecosystems, and communities. Her work addresses the dysfunctions of a dehumanised system that standardises experience and flattens meaning, turning us into perpetual strangers to the worlds we attempt to call home. Rooted in an aesthetic of loss and ruin, her practice embodies a quiet, sensitive form of resistance — seeking to reveal what is fading, neglected, or repressed. Drawn to liminal spaces, Hayeur deliberately blurs the boundaries between political engagement and poetic intuition, between documentary observation and a pictorial approach.
Over time, her work has deepened towards themes of civic resistance and dissent, questioning the growing rigidity of social control and the gradual erosion of individual freedoms. These concerns echo through journeys into the vast landscapes of New Mexico, Arizona, and California, where she observes the American West as both a place of collapse and renewal — a terrain haunted by fading myths yet still capable of reinvention. Alongside this political and geographical exploration, she nurtures a more intimate dimension of her practice, attuned to the enchantment of nature and her quiet kinship with plants and places. For her, art is a way to stand firm while remaining open to wonder — to denounce what is disappearing, while staying receptive to the beauty that endures.
Hayeur’s works have been shown internationally, including at the National Gallery of Canada, MASS MoCA, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris. She has participated in residencies such as the Rauschenberg Residency, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Studios of Key West, and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Her works are part of major public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver Art Gallery, and Fonds national d’art contemporain (Paris). Her distinctions include the Prefix Prize (2025), Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid‑career Award (2021), the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography (2019), and she was a finalist for the Scotiabank Photography Award (2015).