Top 4 Montreal Art Exhibits & Vernissages to See This Week | August 13–14, 2026
Montreal’s art scene isn’t taking an August vacation. This week’s Montreal art exhibits move from the galleries of Saint-Laurent Boulevard to the industrial landscape of the Lachine Canal and even into the skies above Parc Frédéric-Back.
From rebellious Pop Art and street-art energy to mixed-media experimentation, public art rooted in Montreal history, and illuminated kites turning the night sky into a moving canvas, this week proves that a vernissage doesn’t have to mean quietly staring at paintings with a glass of wine in hand.
Here are Best Kept MTL’s Top 4 Montreal art exhibits and vernissages to discover this week. 👇
1. F*CK NORMAL / I WANT MAGIC | Galerie ERGA
Artists: Émilie Gosselin, Sylvain Prévost & Tina Cartier
📅 Thursday, August 13, 2026 | 5 PM to 9 PM
📍 Galerie ERGA, 6394 boul. Saint-Laurent, Montréal
🗺️ Google Maps: Galerie ERGA
Normal is overrated anyway.
F*CK NORMAL / I WANT MAGIC brings three very different artistic personalities together for what promises to be one of this week’s most colourful Montreal vernissages.
Tina Cartier draws inspiration from street art, creating liberating female portraits that mix imagery, graffiti and a variety of techniques and mediums. Sylvain Prévost brings some 30 years of multidisciplinary experience to the gallery with a Pop Art style heavily influenced by iconic figures from popular culture.
Émilie Gosselin takes another direction, exploring human expressions and the emotional intensity of colour with the intention of creating an immediate connection between artwork and viewer.
And apparently, simply hanging art on the walls wasn’t enough.
A bar and DJ Ricky Flammes are also announced for the evening, turning the opening into something closer to an art party than a traditional gallery vernissage.
Why go? Three distinctive visual languages, bold colours, music and a summer-night atmosphere. If you like your Montreal art exhibits with a little nightlife energy, this is our first stop.
2. SIX EMPREINTES | Galerie L’Espace
Artists: Manon Bourdeau, France Houle, Elise Quesnel, Louise Paquette, Johanne Calvaresi & France Séguin
📅 Thursday, August 13, 2026 | 5 PM
📍 Galerie L’Espace, 4844 boul. Saint-Laurent, Montréal
Six women. Six creative paths. Six different imprints.
Six Empreintes brings together a group of artists connected through visual-arts education and a shared appetite for experimentation with materials, textures and mixed media.
Former art and technology teacher Manon Bourdeau develops works through variations of colour, nuances and textures that structure both space and material. France Houle is recognized for her visual-arts teaching and creative use of mixed techniques.
Johanne Calvaresi, who studied with Houle, has developed a particularly wide-ranging practice. Paper, textures, pastels, inks, acrylic, oil sticks, Paverpol, stained-glass paint, encaustic, engraving and recycled materials can all find their way into her work.
Meanwhile, France Séguin, retired from the education sector since 2017, works in mixed media with a particular preference for textile arts.
The exhibition leaves plenty more to discover from Elise Quesnel and Louise Paquette once you arrive.
Why go? If you’re curious about technique rather than one specific artistic style, this is one of the week’s more exploratory Montreal art exhibits. Can’t make the opening? A closing cocktail is also announced for Sunday at 2 PM.
3. ÉCHOS DU CANAL | VIP Evening
Artists: June Barry, Franco Égalité, Thaïla Kampo & Mecky Ottawa
📅 Thursday, August 13, 2026 | 6 PM | RSVP
📍 2471 rue Saint-Patrick, Montréal
Here, contemporary art meets Montreal history.
Échos du canal explores the history, industrial memory, urban transformation and future of one of the city’s most recognizable territories: the Lachine Canal.
The larger initiative celebrates the canal’s bicentennial through public-art routes, performances and showcases for emerging artists, bringing contemporary creation directly into a landscape that has played a major role in Montreal’s industrial evolution.
Thursday’s VIP evening highlights emerging artists June Barry, Franco Égalité, Thaïla Kampo and Mecky Ottawa, inviting visitors to consider how a neighbourhood’s past can be interpreted through a new generation of artistic voices.
The event is presented in partnership with the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University and Provenance Art Advisory.
Why go? Because some of the most interesting Montreal art exhibits aren’t simply about what’s hanging on a wall. Échos du canal connects art with architecture, public space, memory and the continuing transformation of the city around us.
4. GRAIN DE CIEL | Claudio Capelli at TOHU
📅 Friday, August 14, 2026 | Vernissage 5 PM to 7 PM
🌙 Night kite flight | 8:30 PM to 10 PM
📍 TOHU, 2345 rue Jarry Est, Montréal
Who said a painting needs to stay on a canvas?
Internationally renowned artist and kite creator Claudio Capelli has spent more than four decades exploring the interaction between painting, wind and public space.
His practice quite literally allows painting to escape the traditional limits of the canvas through the art of kite-making.
Friday’s vernissage at TOHU launches Grain de ciel, with Capelli as guest of honour. The exhibition continues at TOHU through October 18 and admission is free. Capelli is also the founder of ARTEVENTO, the international kite festival in Cervia, Italy, which he has directed since 1981.
The evening doesn’t end when the gallery doors close.
From 8:30 PM to 10 PM, visitors can experience a nighttime kite flight at Parc Frédéric-Back, with illuminated and colourful kites transforming the sky into a moving aerial composition.
It’s part exhibition, part performance and part excuse to look upward for a change.
Why go? This gets our curiosity vote of the week. The combination of painting, movement, light, wind and public space makes it one of the most unusual art experiences on this week’s calendar.
Discover the Grain de ciel exhibition at TOHU
4 Exhibits, 4 Very Different Sides of Montreal Art
This week’s selection is a reminder of just how broad the term Montreal art exhibits can be.
At Galerie ERGA, contemporary art collides with street culture, Pop Art, music and nightlife. At Galerie L’Espace, six women explore the possibilities of material and mixed media. Échos du canal moves beyond gallery walls to examine the memory and transformation of Montreal itself. And at TOHU, Claudio Capelli takes colour off the canvas and sends it into the sky.
If we had to choose just one?
Grain de ciel gets our Best Kept MTL pick this week for sheer originality, especially with the illuminated night flight following the vernissage.
But if you’re looking for something more social to kick off Thursday night, F*CK NORMAL / I WANT MAGIC sounds appropriately incapable of behaving itself.
That’s the beauty of Montreal’s visual-arts scene: there isn’t one way to experience it.
Stay Connected with Montreal’s Visual Arts Community
For additional exhibitions, radio programming, and artist interviews, visit:
Since 2010, Magazine In Situ has remained one of Montreal’s only radio programs devoted entirely to visual arts and related disciplines. Broadcasting every Saturday from noon to 1 PM on Radio Centre-Ville, the show continues to cultivate dialogue between artists and the broader public while championing the city’s remarkably diverse cultural landscape.
As always, Montreal proves that some of its most exciting stories are still being told inside independent galleries, artist-run spaces, and community-driven exhibitions.
Want to go beyond this week’s Montreal art exhibits? Discover the galleries, hidden spaces and artists shaping the city’s contemporary art scene in our guide to the 15 Best Montreal Art Galleries & Must-See Exhibitions.
Best Kept Tip: Bookmark it for your next gallery-hopping afternoon.
