Keerat Kaur at the MMFA:
Gentle speech as resistance
A poetic immersion where text, music and images weave spiritual worlds
May 7, 2026
At the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), the exhibition Keerat Kaur: Sweet Speech, presented as the artist’s first solo exhibition in a Canadian museum, offers a rare experience: entering a work in which everything begins and returns to language. Until September 20, 2026, the young Canadian artist of Sikh-Punjabi origin, Keerat Kaur, takes over a space at the museum with her paintings, sculptures, texts and musical compositions, weaving an environment that is both intimate and conceptual. In the context of current debates over narrative plurality, this exhibition resonates far beyond the museum’s walls.
In the context of current debates over narrative plurality, this exhibition resonates far beyond the museum’s walls.
At the heart of the exhibition lies the notion of Mithi Boli—literally “sweet speech” in Punjabi. Inspired by a central principle of Sikh thought, it points to the idea of speaking with humility, love and truth, while resisting the harshness of the world. The MMFA makes this the guiding thread of a journey that does not simply juxtapose works, but instead offers a meditation on how language, in all its forms—written, sung, visual—can shape our relationship to others and to the sacred.
Sweet Speech, 2025 • Courtesy of the artist
An exhibition built around a voice
Sweet Speech is presented as Keerat Kaur’s first solo exhibition in a Canadian fine arts museum, and the curatorial approach turns it into a manifesto in action. The artist not only signs the works themselves, but also the texts installed in the gallery, the poems, and even the soundtrack that envelops visitors. The exhibition thus clearly positions itself as “multisensory,” blurring the boundary between a space for listening and a space for contemplation.
This curatorial choice is anything but incidental. Since 2020, the MMFA has permanently presented the Kapany collection, dedicated to Sikh history and art: portraits of the Gurus, images of political authorities, and visual legacies of the Sikh Empire and the British Raj. These works convey narratives of authority, devotion, and power, inscribed within canonized visual codes. By inviting Keerat Kaur to respond to these images through her own practice, the museum opens the door to a contemporary rereading of the very categories of Sikh art and of what is retained from them in a Western museum context.
The artist’s interventions do not seek to erase these images, but rather to activate them differently. Through texts, songs, and sculptures, the space begins to tell other stories—her own—while inviting the public to reflect on how diasporic narratives are woven with traditions and archives that are sometimes frozen in place.
Heart Cleanse, 2000 • Courtesy of the artist
Enveloping worlds and everyday spirituality
The MMFA highlights Keerat Kaur’s ability to create enveloping worlds and dreamlike spaces that feel both strange and familiar. A work like the ceramic sculpture Purification of the Heart (2020), featured in the museum’s communications, clearly illustrates this tension between gentleness and spiritual rigour. The organic forms, carefully worked surfaces, and inscriptions invite a slow, almost meditative reading, in which every detail seems to participate in a larger narrative.
The artist’s practice is deeply rooted in the philosophy of Sikhism, understood not as a fixed identity but as a process of continuous learning and the daily enactment of Sikh teachings. Her works explore the subtle links between nature and spirituality, drawing on various Indian philosophies to construct an imaginary in which textual symbolism and a strong poetic dimension play a central role.
‘The museum opens the door to a contemporary rereading of the very categories of Sikh art and of what is retained from them in a Western museum context.’
This approach also manifests itself in her relationship to music. Keerat Kaur studies and practices Indian classical music, such as Dhrupad and Khayal, which she weaves with other contemporary influences. In her performances, she draws on Punjabi folk traditions as much as on Bollywood melodies, as well as on pop and jazz aesthetics, to create compositions that extend her visual explorations. At the MMFA, this sonic dimension is not a simple “backdrop,” but an essential component of the exhibition’s narrative.
Keerat Kaur • Photo: Mariam Roujouleh
Portrait of a multiform artist
Born in Canada, Keerat Kaur identifies as a Sikh-Punjabi multimedia artist, working across painting, digital illustration, sculpture, embroidery, composite photography, calligraphy, music, writing, public art and architecture. Holding a master’s degree in architecture, she is also a licensed architect, as reflected in her conception of the exhibition space as an immersive pavilion.
Her work is largely grounded in the written word. She weaves narratives and symbols around nature and spirituality, with particular attention to linguistic transmission. In 2022, she self-published Panjabi Garden, an illustrated book for learning Punjabi, where design, illustration, and pedagogy meet. A polyglot – she speaks Punjabi, Hindi, English and French – she also serves as a bridge between several linguistic and cultural communities.
‘Keerat Kaur studies and practices forms of Indian classical music such as Dhrupad and Khayal, which she intertwines with other contemporary influences.’
Before the MMFA, she took part in events such as the Toronto Biennial of Art, where her musical performance entered into dialogue with an installation devoted to “invisible foundations” and fragments of historical narratives. She also performed at City Hall Live in Toronto with a musical project described as a blend of hip-hop, Bollywood and Indian classical music. This movement between the musical stage, the exhibition space, and independent publishing gives her presence in Montreal a particular depth.
Dialogue with Montreal and its audiences
The First Red Seed, 2026 • Courtesy of the artist
For the MMFA, “Sweet Speech” is part of a broader series of initiatives aimed at rethinking how non-Western collections are presented by putting them into conversation with contemporary artists from the communities concerned. In a context where institutions are being urged to reconsider their representational frameworks, Keerat Kaur’s presence at the heart of the section devoted to Sikh art stands out as both a symbolic and programmatic gesture.
Around the exhibition, the museum is also offering mediation activities, including an event titled “Tea with Keerat Kaur,” where the artist discusses her approach with curator Laura Vigo, followed by a short vocal performance. Open and free of charge, this informal gathering extends the dialogue with audiences by offering direct insights into a practice that weaves together spirituality, visual experimentation, and sonic exploration.
For Montreal visitors, “Sweet Speech” is an opportunity to discover an emerging voice on the Canadian art scene and to engage with a broader reflection on gentleness as a form of resistance. In an era saturated with violent discourse, Keerat Kaur’s proposition—to speak, write and sing with care—turns the gallery into a space where listening becomes an act that is as political as it is aesthetic.
Keerat Kaur: Sweet Speech
Until September 20, 2026
at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Featured image: Godāvarī-Satluj, 2024. Courtesy of the artist. © Keerat Kaur Inc.
