Local art gallery: what it means, and what it changes
A local art gallery is an address you can walk into, artists who live in the same city as you, and works you can look at closely before taking them home. L'Original runs two in Montréal, and intends to open more elsewhere.
Four things a local gallery does
A place, not a catalogue
A local gallery has a door, an address and opening hours. You can walk in without an appointment, see the texture of a painting, judge its size against a real wall. No photograph replaces that, and it is the first thing that separates it from an online marketplace.
Artists from here, living
A local gallery represents the artists of its city. Not estates, not rights holders, not licensed reproductions: people you can meet, commission a work from, and who receive the money from the sale. That is what makes buying there have an effect on the local art scene.
Local everywhere, not local nowhere
A chain selling the same prints in forty cities is local in none of them. A local gallery stays local as it replicates, on one condition: that each address represents the artists of ITS city. That is the model we are opening, city by city, rather than one catalogue rolled out everywhere.
What an original costs
The idea that a gallery is out of reach mostly comes from never walking into one. Here, paintings run from $250 to $5,000 and commissioned murals from $5,000 to $80,000. There are no numbered prints and no reproductions: these are unique, signed pieces.
Where we are
Open
Montréal, Canada
- 163 rue Saint-Paul Ouest, Vieux-Montréal
- 4455 rue Saint-Denis, Plateau-Mont-Royal
We only list a city once the address is secured. Openings in preparation appear here only once a space is signed: a local gallery promising cities it is not in contradicts itself.
If you are looking for a work
- See the work in person before deciding, and take it home the same day.
- Meet the person who painted it, or commission a piece of your own.
- Know where the money goes: to an artist in your city.
If you are an artist
- A physical wall in your city, not just an online listing.
- No exclusivity required: you remain free to sell elsewhere.
- Buyers who come for local art, not for imported decor.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a local art gallery?
- A local art gallery is a physical place that represents the artists of its own city and sells their original works. It differs from an online marketplace by the address you can walk into, and from a decor shop in that every piece is unique and signed by a living artist.
- How do you recognise a real local gallery?
- Three questions are enough: can you walk in without an appointment, do the exhibited artists live in the area, and are the works originals rather than prints? If the answer is yes to all three, it is a local gallery. If the same catalogue turns up in several cities, it is something else.
- Is a local gallery more expensive?
- No, and often the opposite. At L'Original paintings run from $250 to $5,000, with no extra middleman between the artist and you. What is paid elsewhere in logistics, image licensing or distribution margin goes here to the person who painted.
- Where are L'Original's local galleries?
- Two addresses in Montréal: 163 rue Saint-Paul Ouest in Old Montréal, and 4455 rue Saint-Denis on the Plateau-Mont-Royal. Both are free to visit, no appointment needed. Other cities will follow, and will appear here only once the address is secured.
- Can you buy from a local gallery remotely?
- Yes. We ship worldwide, and PickArt exists precisely to reproduce at a distance what walking in would give you: sixteen works to swipe, about ninety seconds, and the style and artist that match you come out of it.
- How can a local gallery exist in several cities?
- By not duplicating its catalogue. Each address represents the artists of its own city: it is the place and the artists that are local, not the brand above them. A model that replicates while keeping that rule stays local everywhere; one that drops it becomes a chain.