Nicolas Baier & Valérie Blass: Pas de Deux

Though she wasn’t initially promoted as one of the heavyweights of the Quebec Triennial, Montreal artist Valérie Blass has become one of its hot names quite quickly after the fact. Blass’s compelling sculpture and installation works, which often meld absurd, formalist and abstract approaches with benign everyday objects, were noted by many as a highlight of the survey.

Now, with Blass’s first Toronto solo show, “Une fois de trop,” opening at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art’s project room February 7—as well as a continuing solo show at the Foreman Art Gallery in Sherbrooke and a publication launch February 14 at dealer Parisian Laundry in Montreal—an even wider audience will get to surmise works from this snappy emerging talent.

Joining Blass at MOCCA (and in many ways, having spearheaded the Quebec surge she swims along in) is fellow Montreal artist and triennial exhibitor Nicolas Baier. Toronto is the latest stop for “Pareidolias/Paréidolies” a major Baier travelling exhibition circulated by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in Ottawa.

Named for the phenomena of seeing faces and other familiar images in everyday objects from clouds to clock mechanisms, “Pareidolias” features somewhat ascetic conceptual works, like Baier’s scans of dusty mirrors. But it also, surprisingly, offers up a lo-fi elbow-nudger or two, like a map of Canada formed by the mosses of a Laval golf course. Both are useful in reflecting on Baier’s trajectory.

Though their practices of sculpture and photography differ quite decidedly, Blass and Baier shown side-by-side offer a compact indication that the Montreal art scene remains one of the most vibrant in the nation. (952 Queen St W, Toronto ON)

Please note this article has been corrected. The previous edition contained an inaccurate description of Nicolas Baier’s past work.