Dil Hildebrand: In the Outside

Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain (Montréal)

Dil Hildebrand’s In the Outside exhibition view, May 2025 / Photo: Dil Hildebrand

Dil Hildebrand: In the Outside

On view until July 5, 2025
Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain (Montréal)

Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is excited to present, until July 5, In the Outside by Dil Hildebrand. This is the artist’s 11th solo exhibition at the gallery, marking nearly twenty years of collaboration. Featuring new works – including paintings, drawings and sculptures – this exhibition examines nature and its representation. In his characteristic fashion, Hildebrand subverts the genre of landscape painting with shallow stages that echo theatrical sets, placing us simultaneously on the inside looking out and the outside looking in.

The title In the Outside is intentionally paradoxical — if you are “outside”, you are therefore not “in” anything. This ambiguity is reflected in the works, which give the impression of being both indoors and outdoors at the same time, inviting us to reflect on the confusion between these two conditions.

Dil Hildebrand, Manitoba, 2025 / Photo: Dil Hildebrand

In these paintings, landscapes recorded from the artist’s native Manitoba lay in the distance of oddly interior foregrounds, populated with assortments of abstract shapes, line drawings and painterly vegetation that contrast with their naturalistic settings. Fences and passageways operate as invitations to enter these curious mises en scène, calling attention to the unease of movement between spaces inside and outside the paintings’ pictorial logic. Hildebrand reminds us that the sheltering spaces we recognize in these paintings may not be a sanctuary; the outside world intrudes, both physically and psychologically, and the distinctions between it and our safe interiors remain ambiguous.

The exhibition also features new sculptures by the artist, made from a number of materials, including wood, paperboard, expanding foam, fabric and plaster. These sculptures have a figural relationship to the surrounding paintings. While the paintings refer to figures in their scale and subject matter, they do not include actual bodies. The sculptures represent this missing element, using a similar combination of abstract and representational forms.

Learn more | Discover the installation views | List of works

Dil Hildebrand’s In the Outside exhibition view, May 2025 / Photo: Dil Hildebrand

About the artist

Dil Hildebrand is an artist living and working in Montreal, Canada. His work has been shown internationally in such venues as the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2012); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2014); Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto (2006); National Art Museum of China, Beijing (2010); Fondation Giverny pour l’art contemporain (2024); Herron Galleries at University of Indiana, Indianapolis (2013); Choi&Lager Gallery, Cologne (2013); Union Gallery, London UK (2012&13); University of Manitoba School of Art Gallery, Winnipeg (2013); YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Toronto (2011); Galerie de l’UQAM, Montreal (2013); and AUT University Gallery, Auckland NZ (2007).

He has been awarded a number of distinguished grants and awards including the International Residency at Acme Studios, London UK (2013); the Canada Council for the Arts (2010, 2014, 2019); the Banff Centre Thematic Residency (2009); Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (2009, 2024) and was winner of the RBC National Painting Competition (2006).

His work has been collected by major public institutions throughout Canada, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the National Gallery of Canada, Fondation Giverny pour l’art contemporain and the Art Bank of the Canada Council, as well as numerous private and corporate collections throughout Canada, the United States and Europe.

Magna Claustra (2023), a large-scale painting from the same series as the works featured in the In the Outside exhibition, is part of the permanent collection of the Fondation Giverny pour l’art contemporain and is currently on view at L’Observatoire, their exhibition space designed by architect Pierre Thibault located in the Shefford Mountains (Eastern Townships, Quebec).

Dil Hildebrand, Robed Form 01, 2025 / Photo: Michael Patten

About Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain

Founded in 2001 in Montreal, Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain supports artists whose work brings a singular and authentic voice to today’s art world. It is recognized for the innovative proposals of its multidisciplinary artists, who express themselves in various mediums, from video to painting, sculpture to photography.

Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain
963 Rachel East
Montreal, QC H2J 2J4
www.pfoac.com
info@pfoac.com
514-395-6032

Facebook @PFOAC
Instagram @galeriepfoac

Accessibility:
The gallery Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is partially accessible, including a ramp access upon request and wide and unobstructed pathways within the interior.