Nicolas Baier makes videos, sculptures and large installations, but is best known for his monumental photographs of everyday domestic objects and natural phenomena interacting with digital technology.
Born in 1967 in Montreal, Baier studied graphic art and fine arts at several local universities in the 1980s, and graduated in 1994 with a BFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University. He started out as a painter, but eventually shifted to photography. In 2000 Baier’s work was included in the Montréal Biennale and gained wider recognition. In 2001 he received the Prix Pierre-Ayot, an award recognizing the practice of exceptional young artists.

His early work featured his immediate domestic surroundings, such as a bedroom, a kitchen or a peg wall of tools, and he presented them as something more than a drab, everyday reality. In 2003 he had a solo exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and a catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition as it toured to several public galleries across Canada. By the late 2000s he began to expand his interests beyond the contemplation of individual everyday experiences, toward loftier, mysterious and universal questions, particularly within the fields of physics, philosophy and theology. In this body of work he created images that captured the majesty of natural occurrences (like cloud formations), the elegance of geometry or the infinite complexity of technological devices (such as microprocessors). In Nervures for example, he meticulously sewed together 1,500 digital microscopic images of sections of a microprocessor chip into a cohesive large-format photograph. Using digital manipulation, Baier allows the eye to experience what otherwise can only be understood abstractly, as such images are rarely visualized in a format relatable our eyes. The examination of computer networks and components is a recent focus of his video work. In Procession for example, footage from a data centre and a lush forest are intercut, and sounds taken from each environment intermingle in a dramatic soundscape, which appears alien and familiar at the same time. In these complex, epic works he is as interested in revealing what is hidden with a grand unifying gesture, as he is interested in making sometimes odd connections between apparently contrary realms. In the end he presents questions, inquiries and assertions for a private contemplative experience.

Since 2003, Baier has been making small to large-scale public works, some of which grace the facades of buildings. He has been the subject of numerous books and publications. In 2015 he received the Prix Louis-Comtois for distinction in Montreal’s contemporary arts scene. His work has been shown extensively nationally, at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto, the National Gallery of Canada, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He has also exhibited internationally, including at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, MAC VAL in Paris and Neuer Berliner Kunstverein in Berlin.