Valérie Blass – Le parlement des invisibles, MAY 18–DECEMBER 1, 2019
Valérie Blass Le parlement des invisibles May 18–December 1, 2019
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Using found clothing and plaster casts of body parts, Valérie Blass creates work that defies simple definition. She works with models and specific textiles, moulding these materials to create fixed tableaux. Blass also incorporates casting, carving, and assemblages of objects into her sculptures, drawing on realism, minimalism and Cubism to explore what she calls the “in-between” spaces of abstract, human and inanimate forms.
Inspired by the visual motifs of modern art, Blass translates that pictorial language into intricate sculptural compositions. She experiments with thematic variations, allowing the viewer to imagine limitless possibilities and unlikely configurations. These works, on display for the first time, invite us to examine the unexpected relationships between surfaces, volumes and their underlying structures, and to picture the invisible bodies that might wear any given item.
Valérie Blass (b. 1967) lives and works in her hometown of Montreal, Quebec. Blass is the 2017 recipient of the Gershon Iskowitz Prize, an annual award for artists who have made an exceptional contribution to the visual arts in Canada. Her work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions across North America.
