The Colart Collection: A Canadian Corporate Art Collection Supporting Canadian Artists

When we think about Canadian art collections, our minds often turn to museums, galleries and major public institutions. But some of the most meaningful support for contemporary Canadian artists also comes from the corporate world.

The Colart Collection, based in Montreal, Quebec, is one such example. Established in 2005, the collection was created with a clear purpose: to encourage and support the creativity of Canadian artists through the acquisition of contemporary artwork. Over the years, Colart has provided financial support through acquisitions to more than 200 Canadian artists, building a significant corporate collection that reflects the breadth and diversity of contemporary art being created across the country.

A Corporate Collection with a Canadian Mandate

What makes the Colart Collection particularly interesting is its commitment to Canadian artists at different stages of their careers. Rather than focusing solely on established names, the collection has historically used acquisitions as a way of providing meaningful support to emerging and evolving artists.

The collection encompasses a wide range of artistic practices, mediums and approaches. Its artists represent different regions, generations and perspectives, creating a broad portrait of contemporary Canadian art.

Colart describes its role as a nurturing force for Canada’s emerging artistic talent. In this sense, the collection is more than an accumulation of artworks. Each acquisition represents an investment in an artist’s practice and, importantly, in the continuation of Canada’s visual culture.

The collection is displayed within corporate spaces in Montreal, bringing contemporary Canadian art into the everyday environment of the workplace. This creates another important connection between art, business and community: the artwork is not simply stored away, but becomes part of the spaces where people work and gather.

Supporting Artists Through Acquisition

For artists, having work acquired by a significant corporate collection can be an important milestone.

A collection purchase provides direct financial support while also placing an artist’s work within a broader cultural context. It can become part of an artist’s professional history and contribute to the long-term record of their career.

Colart’s commitment became particularly visible in 2020, when the collection launched its Artist Relief Initiative in response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on artists. The initiative acquired works by 32 artists from across Canada, including artists from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Yukon.

I was fortunate to be among the artists selected for the 2020 initiative. The acquisition added another of my paintings to the Colart Collection and followed the collection’s earlier purchases of my work in 2013. My CV records Colart Collection purchase awards in both 2013 and 2020.

Brandy Saturley in the Colart Collection

My relationship with the Colart Collection began in 2013, when two paintings from my Canadianisms series were acquired.

These works explore Canadian identity through familiar symbols, people and cultural references, including hockey, the Montreal Canadiens, the Canadian flag, the Canadian landscape and the iconic stripes of Hudson’s Bay.

Among the works acquired was On Guard, a 2013 acrylic painting on canvas. The painting brings together the figure, hockey and Canadian symbolism in a distinctly contemporary interpretation of Canadian identity.

Another work, A Punch Line and An Unknown, similarly explores the relationship between people, place and the cultural language of Canada.

These paintings were created during a period when I was deeply immersed in the idea of using popular Canadian imagery as a way of examining who we are and how we see ourselves. Over time, that exploration grew into my larger Pop Canadianisms body of work, which has remained central to my practice.

A Second Colart Acquisition

In 2020, the Colart Collection acquired another of my paintings through its Artist Relief Initiative.

We Can Fit in My Canoe, painted in 2016, belongs to my Pop Canadianisms series. The painting depicts me holding a wooden canoe above my head, wearing a red hoodie and black wool hat. It is playful on the surface, but underneath is a meditation on the Canadian relationship with landscape, adventure and the objects that have become part of our shared cultural vocabulary.

The work is also representative of an important aspect of my practice: using personal experience as a doorway into larger Canadian stories.

The 2020 Colart acquisition was particularly meaningful because the Artist Relief Initiative was created specifically to provide financial support to Canadian artists during an extraordinarily difficult period. The initiative ultimately brought the work of 32 artists into the collection.

Colart Collection Canadian Art: A Visual Record of Contemporary Canada

Corporate collections can play an important role in the Canadian art ecosystem.

Museums and public galleries have long been responsible for preserving and presenting Canadian art, but corporate collections can provide another avenue through which artists are supported, collected and remembered.

In the case of Colart, the emphasis on Canadian artists creates a fascinating snapshot of contemporary artistic practice. The collection includes painters, photographers and artists working across a variety of media and approaches. Its holdings demonstrate that there is no single definition of what Canadian art looks like today.

For me, being part of this collection is particularly meaningful because my own practice is rooted in the exploration of Canadian identity.

For more than two decades, I have travelled across Canada painting the people, places, landscapes, symbols and stories that shape our collective imagination. From hockey and the Hudson’s Bay stripes to the Rocky Mountains, the Arctic, Newfoundland and the West Coast, my paintings are an ongoing visual conversation about what it means to live in this vast and varied country.

Canadian Art in the Workplace

The Colart Collection also offers an interesting model for businesses considering how art can become part of their own environments.

A corporate art collection can transform offices and public spaces while providing tangible support to artists. It can introduce employees, clients and visitors to contemporary Canadian art and create opportunities for conversation that extend beyond the traditional gallery or museum setting.

At its best, corporate collecting becomes a form of cultural patronage: businesses acquire artwork, artists receive support, and Canadian culture gains another network of people and organizations committed to preserving and promoting creative work.

The Colart Collection is an example of how that relationship can operate over time.

Collecting Canadian Art

I have always believed that collecting original Canadian art is about more than owning an object. It is about participating in the story of Canadian culture.

Every painting carries the evidence of a particular moment, place and perspective. When a corporate collection chooses to acquire the work of a Canadian artist, it becomes part of that artist’s history while also contributing to a larger cultural record.

For artists, those acquisitions matter.

They provide support at pivotal moments, create opportunities for visibility and place artworks into collections where they can continue to be encountered long after they leave the studio.

I am proud that my paintings form part of the Colart Collection in Quebec, alongside the work of more than 200 Canadian artists who have been supported through the collection’s acquisitions.

It is a reminder that Canadian art is not simply something we look back upon. It is something we are continually creating, collecting and adding to.

And that story is still being painted.