About Pictura

Janet Werner Green Room, 2020, oil on canvas, 122 x 152 cm

Conceived in 2018, and launched in November 2020, Pictura aims to exhibit and highlight the best painting Montreal has to offer every three years, both in the context of private galleries, and in public and independent spaces throughout the city. Each commercial gallery exhibits solo, duo, or group exhibitions of painting, while a number of curatorial projects will take place, bringing in a variety of international painters, strengthening the network of Montreal’s artists, situating them amongst a global community of practitioners to a new degree. Pictura is a project that has been in constant development with the specific intention of collectively presenting the various formal, critical, and political positions of Montreal painting to a wider audience, with the aim of bringing international attention to Montreal, which is probably one of the central cities for painting in Canada. We strongly believe in and want to promote this idea, which will make the experience positive for all participants. Pictura does not focus on specific stylistic approaches, but rather emphasizes that the "theme" revolves around the great diversity in every sense that contemporary painting practices embody in Montreal. 

Pictura prides itself on the quality of the programming of our invited guest speakers and curators, and most importantly, the showcasing of talent from the great diversity of artists in the city. The first edition of Pictura in 2020, far exceeded its goals, both artistically and in terms of its execution. Even in the face of the global pandemic that forced the closure of many institutions, which was hard to predict, the exhibitions that were able to take place were well attended. More than 30 exhibits featured the paintings of nearly 100 artists, including a number of international artists in two curated exhibitions, one of which had to be presented in virtual mode. Our scheduled speakers, esteemed writer and critic Isabelle Graw, and the CEO of blockchain.art, Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt, had to be presented online due to Covid-related travel restrictions, but the talks were still a success, thanks in part to the support of the MBAM, which hosted the lecture by Ms. Graw, and was presented by Mary-Dailey Desmarais.