about

Kourtney Roy is a Canadian artist and filmmaker whose work constructs meticulously staged, surreal worlds that hover between fiction, performance, and psychological tension. Educated in photography at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver and later at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Roy developed a distinctive visual language early on- one that is cinematic playful, and charged with an underlying sense of unease. Often positionng herself as the protagonist within these constructed environments, her images often resemble stills from mysterious films, suspended in moments of narrative ambiguity.

Based in Paris, Roy works independently across photography and film, using both mediums to build visually striking environments infused with a dark, deadpan sense of humour. Her practice is rooted in staging and artifice: carefully chosen locations, saturated colour palettes, and deliberate compositions create uncanny worlds. Motels, deserts, suburban interiors, highways, and liminal spaces recur throughout her work- spaces where time seems elastic and reality disturbingly off-kilter.

Her work has received significant recognition, including the Prix Carte Blanche PMU / LeBal in 2013, a nomination for the Prix Elysée in Switzerland in 2014, and the Pernod Ricard Carte Blanche Prize in 2018. In 2022, Roy was selected as a recipient of the Bibliothèque nationale de France’s Grand Commande Photojournalisme. Her book The Other End of the Rainbow was awarded the Prix des Libraires Photobook of the Year in 2023. In 2024, she received the Swiss Life 4-Handed Prize in collaboration with composer Mathias Delplanque, reflecting her growing engagement with cross-disciplinary forms.

Roy’s transition into filmmaking extends seamlessly from her photographic universe.Her short film MORNING, VEGAS—a dark, surreal work exploring displacement, and psychological rupture—won the Best Experimental Film Award at the Brest European Short Film Festival in 2019. Her debut feature film, KRYPTIC, a time-bending psycho-sexual thriller starring Chloë Pirrie (The Queen’s Gambit), premiered at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in 2024 and was released worldwide in 2025. The film translates Roy’s visual sensibility into a fully immersive cinematic language, maintaining her interest in fractured perception, unstable timelines,and the porous boundary between inner and outer worlds.

Roy’s artwork has been exhibited widely in France and internationally, including Festival Planche(s) Contact in Deauville (2012), LeBal in Paris (2014), Paris Photo in 2018 as part of the Pernod Ricard Carte Blanche Award, Villa Pérochon in Niort (2025), and The Gallery Filles du Calvaire in Paris. In 2025, her work was presented at Les Rencontres d’Arles with The Tourist. Her work has also been exhibited throughout Europe, as well as in China, the United States, Australia,and Russia.

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