The persistent will eventually discover the truth about Sophie La Rosière.

The little-known French painter and sculptor of the early 20th century is the subject of an investigation and two-part exhibition by Toronto artist Iris Haussler now showing at the Art Gallery of York University and the Scrap Metal Gallery. Finding that second venue will take some work; it’s at the back of a yard, down an alleyway, off a small dead-end street in Toronto’s industrial west end. Once there, the successful seeker will want to admire the mute, black doors that the Toronto collectors who founded Scrap Metal originally purchased, believing them to be modernist abstractions – and watch two documentary videos that explain why La Rosière might have chosen to hide the flowery female nudes originally painted on the doors under a thick coat of encaustic...