RÉFLÉCHIR
Andrea Szilasi
Opening January 15, 2026
McBride Contemporain is pleased to present Réfléchir, Andrea Szilasi’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. Through a new series of collages composed of vinyl letters and numbers, the artist examines the visual structures that shape our understanding of the world while deepening her inquiry into the very nature of the photographic image.
Applied to the pages of second-hand architecture or design books, alphanumeric vinyl characters are stretched, torn, and cut, and then reassembled as shapes and lines on top of architectural spaces. These elements are recognizable as fundamental structures of our world: letters form words to express ideas, numbers establish sequences and systems, and architecture organizes the spaces that our bodies move through. By fragmenting and accumulating these signs across the photographic surface, Szilasi disrupts the ordered logic of language and constructed space. Applied intuitively, these interventions create compositions in which familiar markers loosen and shift, and where photography becomes active, malleable, and almost sculptural.
Amidst the series of small collages, two large prints command attention. A closer look reveals the flattened surface of the digitized vinyl, further challenging the viewer’s interpretation of depth. In Screen, layers of information float like a veil obscuring the architectural composition, while in Fragmented, the image appears fractured, evoking an inaccessible memory.
This recurring desire to enter the photographic space and to bring forth the mental state that led to its creation has sustained Szilasi’s practice for many years. Réfléchir reactivates this approach with renewed intensity. The exhibition title evokes both the act of thinking and the shaping of an idea, while also referring to the phenomenon of light reflection at the origin of the photographic image. Szilasi, however, seeks to move beyond this surface to reveal invisible layers of memory and meaning. Through collage, she materializes this tension between depth and flatness, creating a sublogical, almost dreamlike visual space where perception, memory, and language shimmer on the surface.
Born in Montreal, where she lives and works, Andrea Szilasi holds a Master’s degree in Photography from Concordia University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies and in French Language and Literature from the University of Toronto. Since the 1990s, she has distinguished herself through an experimental approach to photography, exploring both the material properties of the medium and its representation of the human body. Her work has been included in several landmark initiatives in Canadian art history, including Femmes artistes du XXe siècle au Québec, a publication by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, as well as the Musée virtuel de la photographie québécoise, a project by Centre VOX. Szilasi’s works have been presented in museum exhibitions curated from permanent collections, notably at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Her work is also part of the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.