Bio
Born, lives and works in Montreal, Canada.
Using video, photography and installation, Natascha Niederstrass’ weaves references between art history, news, crime scene and horror cinema. She emphasizes the ambiguity of signs and cultural codes accepted as truths that are deceptive compared to a reality that often escapes us.
Fascinated with narrative issues, she explores the possibilities offered by reconstruction methods, skillfully operating in the margins between truth and fiction. Niederstrass often chooses to use a forensic aesthetic, for it serves both as an approachable way for the general public to pry open the often hermetic shell of contemporary art, and as a viable critical model for understanding art that relies on clues, obscurities, and residue. Niederstrass takes the viewer through the exciting process of reconstructing a story, a scene, a speculative action or an event excluded from the « visible ».
A graduate of Concordia University in Montreal (BFA) and York University in Toronto (MFA), Natascha Niederstrass has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in galleries and artist-run centers. Her work is included in the collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d’art de Joliette, the National Bank of Canada, the City of Longueil, and the City of Laval. She has completed a residency at VU Photo in Quebec City in June 2021 to develop a new body of work which was presented in 2022 as part of the 10th edition of the Manif d’Art de Québec. In the winter of 2021, she took part in a research residency at Centre SAGAMIE in collaboration with Saguenay artist Caroline Fillion. The result of their research was presented at Occurrence – espace d’art et d’essai contemporains and at Centre SAGAMIE. Her first artist book, Stress aigu, was published by Les Éditions Rodrigol in early 2022. She begins a new collaboration with the Patrick Mikhail Gallery in Montreal at the end of 2022 by presenting her most recent body of work The Vanishing Woman.