Montreal artists illustrates Jewish immigrant experience [Video]

Artist Arnie Lipsey may have moved away from Montreal decades ago, but the city is at the heart of his latest project, “The Past is Before You.”

The exhibit, now showing at the Museum of Jewish Montreal, tells the story of three generations of his family. Each portrait is inspired by old family photographs.

“I start with the goal of developing a portrait of the people involved and different locations or elements or props, if you will, to, to tell the story of who they were or are,” he said.

Using a vibrant colour pallet, a nod to his long career in animation, his subject matter is often darker. His parents were European Jews who came to Montreal in the mid 1930s. Although they escaped Hitler’s terror, they both lost many family members in the Holocaust.

Lipsey says his work explores the psychological legacies that link generations.

“I know that …