Montreal Street Artists | Tribute to the pioneers

The Montreal gallery L’Original pays tribute, until February 14, to artists who have marked Montreal’s urban art since its emergence. A double exhibition presents around thirty works by precursors such as Zïlon, Scan, Zoltan, Axe, Labrona, Astro, Kevin Ledo or Monk E, who also made his mark in hip-hop.

Dedicated to Montreal urban art, L’Original (which has two premises, at 4455, rue Saint-Denis, and at 163, rue Saint-Paul) is a non-profit gallery born in 2017 from the will of a group of students to disseminate, promote and help street artists. Its directors Dorian Verdier and Normand Giguère celebrate the health of their social enterprise with this tribute to Montreal street art. They invited those who create “interior” works to hang them in their gallery.

Not everyone is present, of course, but the deployment does cover Montreal’s history of urban art that Dorian Verdier – 22 years old, born in France and living in Montreal since 2017 – now masters quite well, if being made contacts everywhere in the medium.

“The first street artist I knew was Monk E, a huge inspiration,” he says. So he is present in the exhibition. We would have liked all the artists, especially since the street art community is quite close. But we are proud of this show. We organized it after meeting the Mural festival, Under Pressure, [le spécialiste de la scène graffiti+street art]Wall2Wall and [la boutique de matériel artistique] The Sino. To see if we were representing the pioneers correctly. It’s a show made with the community. »

There is a work by Scan, a sort of tribute to this great Montreal graffiti artist, who unfortunately died in 2017 at the age of 36. Next to it, a beautiful smiley classic of MakeNoize, artist sower of hope. Zïlon is obviously present with several paintings, including one commissioned in the 1980s by a Montreal restorer who wanted a representation of his feminine ideal! There are several Labronas too, including some recent small frames denoting a tropical atmosphere. “I really liked the Mexican murals when I traveled there, so that’s definitely one of my influences,” says Labrona.

Beautiful presentation also at 163, rue Saint-Paul, with works by MakeNoize, Zoltan, Nicolas Craig or Kevin Ledo. Dorian Verdier is happy to promote these artists he admires. “I am not an artist, but a fan! I want to help them, because what they do, I wouldn’t be able to do. My role is to support those who dream of earning a living with their passion, and this, with the expertise that I have,” says the master’s student in management and social innovation at HEC.

Dorian Verdier is impressed by Montreal’s urban art.

“Coming from France, I can say that Montreal is kicking as much in Paris as in Lyon. Yes, there is street art all over the world, but it is much more prolific and consistent here. And of better quality”, assures Dorian Verdier.

To take the measure of this diversity of local urban art, L’Original has collaborated with Wall2Wall (his first name Stéphane) which has just released a beautiful book devoted to 69 graffiti artists from the metropolis. Beautifully printed, it documents the works of artists that Wall2Wall is very proud of. “I’ve traveled a lot, but when I come back to Montreal, I see how great a job we do here,” he says. I think being both North American and European in origin gives a nice mix and a lot of diversity. »

Nice idea, then, that this grouping of signatures of Montreal urban art. Perhaps a museum should consider a real retrospective? With the means, it would make an extremely beautiful show. “The institutional environment is always late in recognizing what is happening in the present,” says Dorian Verdier. It always takes 20 years, 30 years and sometimes even that the artists have died to be recognized. Still, it’s good to do it in their lifetime…”