It is on the main artery of Montreal, “the Main”, that a breeze of novelty is blowing in the world of visual arts. Not one, but two galleries have been set up side by side on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, a few steps north of Mont-Royal Avenue.
“Saint-Laurent and Mont-Royal are the center of Montreal! » exclaims Nicolas Robert. The gallery premises bearing his name will be inaugurated in the first days of April. The man is not a newcomer: he has been in business for a little over 10 years, and the address on Saint-Laurent will be his third, after those in downtown and Old Montreal — not to mention that it also has a storefront in Toronto.
The experienced gallery owner will begin with a group exhibition, but is impatient to present the “collaborations” that will follow. First, the one with Shoshana Walfish, an artist from Ontario who graduated from Concordia University and is now based in Europe. “She just had a solo at the Jewish Museum in [Belgique à] Brussels. There is some noise about him,” says the one who will welcome him in May. Afterwards will come the summer exhibition, entrusted to a New York curator who will bring together artists from here and New York.
One door away from the Nicolas Robert gallery, a new entity, also named after its owner, Eli Kerr, is already in operation. The one who is now the youngest member — and the 42e — of the Association of Contemporary Art Galleries took off in February. However, Eli Kerr is not a beginner either. Since 2016, he has led two parallel broadcast projects, Vie d’ange (2016-2019) and Parc Offsite (2020-2023).
« Offsite [minuscule galerie sur l’avenue du Parc, près de l’avenue Fairmount] was really linked to the pandemic, says the Montrealer originally from Saskatchewan. By closing it, I put an end to this period. I didn’t feel any sadness. »
After also a first group exhibition, Eli Kerr impatiently awaits the two solos which will follow. It will bring Anthony Burnham, who has not exhibited for seven years, out of oblivion, then present an installation by video artist Joyce Joumaa, the one which will be part of the central exhibition of the Venice Biennale. “I like the contrast between the return of a well-known artist and a young voice asserting itself,” he says, delighted to represent artists from all generations.
This meeting between a gallery arriving from the south of the city and another from the north is not a coincidence. Both moves were orchestrated under the impetus of a common desire, that of growing in space – and in notoriety. The initiative came from Nicolas Robert, who wanted to leave the isolation near the Old Port in which he had worked since the departure of the prestigious gallery which was his neighbor.
“I’ve been looking intensely for two years. Every week,” he admits. He would have stayed where he was, tried to convince colleagues to join him. It would have taken three galleries to occupy the vacant space. Too big, too expensive. At the same time, on the Main, the former Robin des bois, the “social profit” restaurant driven out by a fire, was eyeing the gallery owner.
” I live next door. I saw the place boarded up, renovated. When [j’ai regardé] inside, I saw a gallery space,” he says. The rest was simple: a call to the owners, a reasonable price, a visit. And an invitation to discover one of the redeveloped premises extended to Eli Kerr.
The new Nicolas Robert gallery will be almost three times larger, at 3,800 square feet. The result goes hand in hand: two rooms, two simultaneous exhibitions and a desire to organize public discussions. Eli Kerr triples his spaces. With 1,500 square feet, it will hold more ambitious exhibitions and will not hesitate to present sculpture.
A beautiful bond
Eli Kerr and Nicolas Robert are not just new neighbors. They are real accomplices, including the way they correct each other during the interview. The ceiling is 19 feet, go first; “18.8”, specifies the second. “So 19,” retorts the other; “18.8”, underlines his colleague. And the laughter follows.
Without qualifying themselves as mentor and mentee, the two men believe they are following the same path. Gently, the growth of their galleries is similar, on a different scale: Nicolas Robert represents 20 artists, Eli Kerr, 9 — including 7 French-speaking, the Anglo-Montrealer proudly points out. Both go to fairs, even abroad. One is proud to be on par with Los Angeles and New York – “five of my artists are also represented by galleries in the United States” – the other, of having sold to a Chinese museum, during a fair in Switzerland (Liste Art Fair Basel), a video installation by Simon S. Belleau.
Moving was a necessity, summed up, according to Nicolas Robert, by the fear of repeating oneself, or even of losing artists. “An artist should never exhibit three times in the same place. A space has a lifespan of 10 years,” he says, quoting New York gallery owner David Zwirner.
The Nicolas Robert and Eli Kerr galleries land a few meters from another brand, the Patrick Mikhail gallery. This is perhaps the beginning of a new center of contemporary art.