Michelle Lacombe
Canada
An artist with a unique practice on the border of performance, drawing, and body art. A graduate of Concordia University.
About the artist
Michelle Lacombe lives and works in Tiohtià:ke / Montréal in Canada. Since obtaining a bachelor degree in fine arts from Concordia University in 2006, she has developed a resolutely feminist practice that is located at the intersection of performance, drawing, and body art. Her actions and artworks have been presented frequently in North America and abroad, in countries such as Mexico, Argentina, France, Spain, Finland, Latvia, and Cameroun. In 2017, she was an exhibiting artist at the Art Encounters Contemporary Art Biennial in Romania. She is the recipient of numerous grants and, in 2015, received the 2015 Bourse Plein Sud. In 2025, she won the Prix en art actuel du Musée National des Beaux-Arts de Québec and was a long-listed nominee for the Sobey art award.
Her practice as an artist is paralleled by a commitment to supporting artist-run culture and other D.I.Y. collective organising strategies. Over the past 20 years, she has co-organised a number of independent performance art events, including Legs (2015-2025), and has been involved in a number of artist-run centers in Québec, including articule, Le Lieu, and La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse. Since 2011, she has been the director of VIVA! Art Action, an international action art festival.