Montreal’s vast design gallery puts Quebec-based creatives in the spotlight

Since opening in the fall, the Decorative Arts and Design Pavilion at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has impressed visitors with its expansive array of 800 objects. In addition to presenting internationally recognized examples of pivotal design pieces, eras and movements, chief curator Mary-Dailey Desmarais and design historian Rachel Gotlieb endeavoured to spotlight Quebec-based creatives, studios and manufacturers. “In this object-based timeline, we really wanted to put forward the strength of Quebec and Canadian contributions to the history of design,” Desmarais says.

Amik Chair by Caroline Monnet

Featured in her 2024 exhibition at Toronto’s Power Plant gallery and made in collaboration with Montreal furniture and decor company Humble Nature, Caroline Monnet’s shapely, limited-edition Amik chair is crafted with a local ash-wood veneer. Named after the Ojibwe word for “beaver,” the piece pays homage to Monnet’s Anishinaabe ancestry and traditional storytelling. “It’s an unexpected honour to join the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ decorative arts and design collection,” Monnet wrote in an e-mail. “I’ve long admired designers of all horizons, particularly Charles and Ray Eames. I’m grateful that the Amik chair now sits within this bold and important collection.”

Dress by Denis Gagnon

Crafted out of brass zippers and showcased in his fall/winter 2010 fashion collection called Zips, Denis Gagnon’s Dress is one of several wearable works in the MMFA’s collection – and perhaps one of its most surreal. Here, Gagnon – whose eponymous label celebrated 25 years last year – reworks the silhouette of a sultry bustier using utilitarian means; a subversive and surprising expression of glamour from one of Quebec’s most fashion-forward figures.

Flamboyante by Mariette Rousseau-Vermette

Visionary textile artist Mariette Rousseau-Vermette’s contribution to the collection is a grand, sunset-hued tapestry called Flamboyante (1977). The bold work is accented with confident graphic lines that contrast a fluid gradient of colours, exemplifying Rousseau-Vermette’s deft and innovative approach to the traditional practice of weaving. She first honed her skills making textile renditions of preparatory drawings by the 1950s cohort of avant-garde painters from Quebec; once weaving her own powerful pieces, she shared a studio with her ceramic artist husband, Claude Vermette.

Chalice by Maurice Brault

While the average Canadian wasn’t using chalices – a sacred, stemmed drinking vessel – in their everyday lives in the 1950s, goldsmith and jewellery designer Maurice Brault’s version certainly made a splash in the design community at the time. Gotlieb, pointing to the era’s interest in the design and craftsmanship of religious art, says that Brault’s luxurious geometric cup “is an outstanding example of the best work that resulted from this revival.” Fashioned from silver, silver gilt, enamel on copper and gilt brass, Chalice is part of the inimitable assembly of silverware in the Pavilion’s trove that was gifted by former Canadian senator, Serge Joyal.

Mountie Stool by Samare

Produced by Montreal studio Samare, which was founded in 2006, the Mountie Stool is a clever combination of vibrant, red-painted steel and earthy babiche – a kind of interwoven material, usually hide or animal gut, that’s used to make snowshoes. The piece, made in an edition of 50 in 2007, evokes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with not only its fiery hue but also the stool handle’s design that resembles the pommel of a saddle.