The top 5 Montreal Art Exhibitions You Won’t Want to Miss This Week
Looking for the Top 5 Montréal Art exhibitions has to offer this week? Summer is in full swing, and so is the city’s thriving arts scene. From contemporary painting and photography to immersive installations, experimental design, and milestone exhibitions, this week’s lineup showcases the remarkable diversity of Montreal art exhibitions. Whether you’re a seasoned collector, an emerging artist, or simply searching for inspiring things to do in Montreal, these openings promise unforgettable evenings filled with creativity, conversation, and discovery.
Here’s our selection of the Top 5 Montréal Art Exhibitions for July 16–18.
1. Four Artists Explore Time and Memory at The Waiting Room
📍 Galerie McBride Contemporain, Belgo
📅 Thursday, July 16 | 5 PM – 8 PM
The always-popular Galerie McBride Contemporain returns with another thoughtfully curated exhibition inside Montreal’s iconic Belgo building. This week’s opening, The Waiting Room, curated by Emma Ongman, brings together four Montreal-based artists whose practices intersect around the idea of waiting—not as passive time, but as a space where memory, anticipation, and belief begin to take shape.
Each artist approaches the theme from a unique perspective. Anne Dahl revisits humanity’s earliest methods of measuring time through sculptural works in wood and wax. Colin Canary blurs the line between photography and painting, creating unfinished images that hover between remembrance and forgetting. Josi Smith constructs intimate environments using vernacular photography, sculpture, and installation, while Masha Granich draws from folklore, displacement, and personal memory to build poetic, autofictional worlds.
For anyone interested in contemporary art in Montreal, this exhibition offers a thoughtful and visually engaging way to begin the weekend.
2. Pop Art Meets Canadian Design at POP POP POP
📍 Pari Passu, 470 Duluth Est
📅 Thursday, July 16 | 5 PM – 8 PM
Design lovers won’t want to miss POP POP POP, an exhibition celebrating the legendary Glo-Up lighting collection originally created in 1969 by Canadian designer Douglas Ball.
Curated around a contemporary re-edition by designer Mathieu Leclerc of Full Room, the exhibition pays tribute to one of Canada’s most recognizable design icons while inviting visitors to discover the work of local artisans, artists, and designers whose practices echo Ball’s playful Pop Art spirit.
Entirely produced in Canada, these updated luminaires honour the original proportions and aesthetic while bringing them into today’s interiors. Set inside the vibrant atmosphere of Pari Passu, the evening promises equal parts design inspiration and celebration.
It’s one of the week’s standout events for anyone following Montreal’s design and art scene.
3. Bootlegger Magazine Celebrates Montreal’s Creative Underground
📍 Espace Louäble, 3550 Rue Saint-Jacques
📅 Thursday, July 16 | 6 PM – Late
Some of Montreal’s most exciting creative voices exist outside traditional galleries. That’s exactly what Bootlegger Magazine has championed since 2021.
Its newest issue launches this Thursday with an evening dedicated to the city’s emerging artists working across painting, ceramics, tattooing, textiles, nail art, illustration, and countless other disciplines.
The publication has become an important platform for creators who are often underrepresented by conventional art institutions, embracing experimentation, inclusivity, and complete artistic freedom.
Expect an energetic crowd, great conversations, and a celebration of Montreal’s independent creative community that continues well into the night.
4. Philippe Asselin’s Sismo Explores Resilience Through Art
📍 Galerie Deschênes, 5155 Rue D’Iberville, App. 495
📅 Friday, July 17 | 5 PM – 10 PM
Hidden inside a Plateau-Mont-Royal apartment, Galerie Deschênes has quietly become one of Montreal’s most intriguing alternative exhibition spaces.
This week, visitors can discover Sismo, Philippe Asselin’s latest body of work.
Using automatic drawing and printmaking techniques translated onto canvas, Asselin investigates the lasting traces left behind by violence while asking how healing and resilience emerge from trauma.
The intimate setting enhances the emotional impact of the exhibition, offering visitors an opportunity to engage directly with both the work and gallery founder Mathieu Deschênes, a passionate advocate for Montreal’s visual arts community.
If you’re looking to experience a different side of the Montreal art gallery scene, this vernissage deserves a spot on your list.
5. Art Mûr Celebrates 30 Years with a Landmark Collective Exhibition
📍 Galerie Art Mûr, 5826 Rue Saint-Hubert
📅 Saturday, July 18 | 3 PM – 5:30 PM
Our top pick this week is impossible to overlook.
Celebrating three decades of championing contemporary Canadian artists, Galerie Art Mûr presents Crescendo / Orchestrating Our Own Story (1996–2026), an ambitious exhibition bringing together more than thirty artists who have shaped the gallery’s remarkable history.
Spread across all three floors, the exhibition traces Art Mûr’s evolution from its early years in Saint-Henri to its current home on Saint-Hubert Street, highlighting artists whose careers have since reached museum collections and international audiences.
Adding another layer to the experience is a live performance by Éric Lamontagne, inspired by the notorious art forger Réal Lessard. Visitors will even have the opportunity to participate in an Agatha Christie-inspired investigation, making this much more than a traditional exhibition opening.
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.
Art isn’t confined to galleries, discover Montreal’s creative heritage through its iconic neon landmarks in our guide, Montreal Time Travel | Your Road Map to 20 Vintage Signs!
