Plume Latraverse exposes 25 paintings in Montreal gallery debut
Plume latraverse is showing 25 paintings for the first time in a gallery, with Chansons à l'huile on view at Galerie Noir et Rouge in Montreal from June 18 to September 15. For an artist with more than 50 years of career, about twenty albums, and hundreds of paintings made since the 1960s, the move pulls a private visual practice into public view.
Galerie Noir et Rouge
The exhibition takes place at Galerie Noir et Rouge, 203, rue Notre-Dame Ouest, in Old Montreal. It is the first time Latraverse has exhibited his work in a gallery, after only small shows at the Inspecteur Épingle.
Marc Durand said, “Plume n’a jamais exposé en galerie. Il l’a fait à l’Inspecteur Épingle, lors de petites expositions.” That makes this display more than a vanity side project: it is the first formal gallery framing of work Latraverse has been making alongside his music career for decades.
Chansons à l'huile
The title Chansons à l'huile gives the show its own logic. Durand said, “L'expo s’appelle Chansons à l'huile, donc c’est comme des chansons qu’il a peintes. D'ailleurs, il y a toujours des choses écrites sur le cadre intérieur du tableau: un titre, un sous-titre ou souvent, des fois, un commentaire.”
The 25 works include portraits, scenes of daily life, and more surreal creations, along with a self-portrait titled La main verte from 2012. That range matters because the show does not present a single polished brand of Latraverse; it puts his wit, his narrative instincts, and his visual side into the same room.
Plume and Ménard
Durand also pointed back to 1965-1966, when Latraverse was a portraitist and worked for a gallery at Square Victoria. He said, “Il faut se rappeler que Plume était portraitiste en 1965-1966, il travaillait pour une galerie au square Victoria,” a reminder that the exhibition is opening a much older thread in his career, not inventing one.
Andre Ménard, who owns seven paintings by Plume, said the work opens a rare window onto the artist. “Plume n'est pas quelqu'un qui s’ouvre beaucoup, il est assez difficile à déchiffrer, mais, dans ses tableaux, il y a des secrets, des pensées, où on en apprend un peu plus,” he said. For viewers in Montreal, the practical takeaway is simple: this is the place to see an aspect of Latraverse’s work that has stayed mostly out of gallery circulation until now.
