Artforum.com Critics’ Pick: Valerie Blass at the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal

Earlier this month, I had the good fortune to spend a weekend in Montreal just as a bunch of excellent shows were opening. My favourites, though, were the three solo exhibitions by contemporary women artists currently on view at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal: Ghada Amer, Wangechi Mutu and Valérie Blass. I’ve followed Blass’s work since her appearance in the first Quebec Triennial, where her work stood out in what was already a jam-packed, exciting survey of contemporary art-making, but haven’t had the chance to see a solo exhibition of her sculptures. Seeing all her work together, a huge, diverse body of work created only over the past seven years, was awe-inspiring. It made the MACM show, the largest of her work to date, seem somehow overdue.

Though it’s impossible to do the exhibition justice, I tried to sum up some of my favourite works in my review of Blass’s show on Artforum.com. I only had a chance to mention a few of the excellent pieces on display, but there is much more on offer in the exhibition, as well as in the gorgeous catalogue, which includes an excellent essay on the role of the uncanny in Blass’s work by art historian Amelia Jones. Blass’s show is already on my long list for the Best Shows of 2012: it’s a can’t-miss if you happen to be in Montreal over the next month.