Centre
Artworks
→ PHI's art collection
- Installation
- Free
- Contemporary Art
PHI Centre
315 Saint-Paul St West
Montreal, Quebec, H2Y 2A3
Monday and Tuesday: 9 AM to 5 PM
Wednesday and Thursday: 9 AM to 7 PM
Friday: 9 AM to 9 PM
Saturday: 11 AM to 9 PM
Sunday: 11 AM to 7 PM
All ages
Free, no reservations required
Before visiting, please review some essential information about the visit, including details on accessibility at the Centre.
For more details on safety measures in place at the PHI Centre, visit our COVID-19 page.
An ongoing collection of contemporary artworks, accessible and free at the PHI Centre.
Selected by
The thinking behind the collection
Following our mission to bring art into our everyday lives, PHI is now displaying a selection of its ongoing collection of contemporary artworks on the ground floor of the PHI Centre, free and accessible to the public.
Titled Figure–Ground, the series has been carefully selected by Jon Knowles, Exhibitions Manager at the PHI Foundation.
The selection brings together several works from the PHI collection that explore the figure and the complex and intimate correlation it establishes with its background. For us, the figure is a point of reference to question, while its meaning is found in the relationship with its background: its context, the space that surrounds it, and its place in time.
Among these works, we see figures as silhouettes—bodies escaping the overburdening of their representation. Some sculptural pieces make the site of their exhibition their ground and call us to question the ground as a mode of display. Others use minimalist figures with the barest of elements to create symmetrical images that we understand right away, putting an emphasis instead on the cultural history and context that makes these figures at once recognizable.
In this collection, when the figure(s) and the ground are intertwined, they are in resonance, sometimes in harmony, and sometimes in counterpoint. Rather than simply seeing, they ask us to employ all of our senses, our perceptions of time and space, as well as our cultural and learned ideas about how we see and interpret representations.
Meet the artists
More Events at PHI
Free
Centre
Chromatic Myriad
August 15 → July 31
The PHI Centre showcases a light installation with evolving content, adapting to the seasons and exhibitions
Off-Site Location
The Horizon of Khufu
February 16 → July 31
The immersive experience Horizon of Khufu, presented in the Old Port, is a unique VR expedition to discover the wonders of Egypt
Free
Centre
Embodied Spaces
February 24 → December 31
A monthly gathering of live performances where art comes to life
Dolby Atmos Mix
Centre
Habitat Sonore: Listening room
May 1 → August 11
Tune out outside noise and immerse yourself in one of Montreal's only spatial audio listening rooms. The artists: Daft Punk, KALLITECHNIS, and a playlist of local artists
Free
Foundation
Natacha Clitandre: Reflexive Constructions
May 3 → September 8
Reflexive Constructions is a public engagement project by artist Natacha Clitandre taking place in the PHI Foundation’s Education Room, in parallel with the exhibitions Sonia Boyce: FEELING HER WAY and Rajni Perera and Marigold Santos: Efflorescence/The Way We Wake
Free
Foundation
Devotional Collection in Montréal
May 3 → September 8
This drop-in activity invites the public to share names of BIPOC women who have contributed and contribute to the music scene locally and nationally, and to share anecdotes, testimonies and recollections of their importance in music history
Free
Foundation
Sonia Boyce: FEELING HER WAY
May 3 → September 8
The PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art is pleased to present the North American premiere of FEELING HER WAY by Sonia Boyce DBE RA
Free
Foundation
Rajni Perera and Marigold Santos: Efflorescence/The Way We Wake
May 3 → September 8
The PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art is pleased to present Rajni Perera and Marigold Santos: Efflorescence/The Way We Wake, an exhibition featuring recent paintings and sculptures produced by each artist from 2021 to 2024