About
A Life Between Philosophy and Image
Dr. Runhild Roeder is a Montreal-based philosopher, painter, gallerist, author, and composer. Her work bridges European expressionism, philosophical hermeneutics, spiritual inquiry, and the lived experience of art.
She holds a doctorate in philosophy from Université Laval (2007), completed under Thomas De Koninck. Her dissertation, Truth Over Method: Art Matters, draws on Hans-Georg Gadamer to argue that understanding is an event rather than a method — and that art is one of its most authentic occasions.
For over three decades, she has painted, written, composed, and exhibited across Montreal, Antwerp, Leuven, Ghent, London, Toronto, and New Delhi. She is the founder of Galerie Être, her studio and gallery.
Her recurring themes — truth, hermeneutics, dialogue, Bildung, freedom, the sacred, beauty, consciousness — return in every medium she works in, from oil on canvas to electronic suites for keyboard.
A Timeline
Across the Decades
- 1980s
Begins painting in earnest, in dialogue with European expressionism and the Cobra movement.
- 1983–1994
Studies at McGill University, Montreal.
- 1987
Early exhibitions in Toronto.
- 1989
Acquisition of Kempty Falls — public collection orbit, New Delhi (artist-provided history; available for verification).
- 1996–2000
M.A.-level studies at the Catholic University of Louvain (Leuven), Belgium.
- 1999
Press feature, Leven in Stijl, Antwerp.
- 2001–2002
M.A. in philosophy, Université de Sherbrooke.
- 2002
Henry Lehmann reviews her work in The Gazette: 'authentic, passionate and lyrical'.
- 2007
Doctorate in philosophy from Université Laval, under Thomas De Koninck. Thesis: Truth Over Method: Art Matters.
- 2007–2010
Doctoral studies in contemporary religions, Université de Sherbrooke.
- 2012
Solo exhibition at Georges Laoun Opticien (within the MMFA complex). Album Transcendental Odyssey, Opus 1 released.
- 2014
Music of the Spheres, Opus 2.
- Today
Active in Montreal, founder of Galerie Être.