Mural festival – Vandalog – A Street Art Blog

August 31, 2014

Mathieu Connery’s sidewalks for MURAL festival 2014

photo 4_01 — “Mikado nest”. photo by Mathieu Connery

From May to mid-July, Mathieu Connery aka 500M painted several murals on sidewalks for the second MURAL festival edition. To the frequency of 1 per week, he did 10 abstract murals on the Main, the Saint-Laurent Boulevard, official location of the festival. Guess the organizers really liked the 3 sidewalks murals he painted last year for the first edition of MURAL, as they asked him to enlarge his project this year. The Montreal based artist is well known in the city for his minimalist abstract pieces, “I try to make most of my interventions interact in different ways with the environment, to inspire appropriation of the public space in any other way. It also applies in the streets with concrete, tags that were there before,etc…” I just hope that one day he will get a real wall rather than always sidewalks in Montreal!

photo 1_01 — 3rd. photo by Mathieu Connery

photo 2_01 — 6th. Photo by Mathieu Connery

photo 5_01.1 — “Is rasberry rock”. Photo by Mathieu Connery

photo 5_01 — 8th. Photo by Mathieu Connery

photo_01 — “Faceblob”. Photo by Mathieu Connery

DSC_4503_01 — 7th. Photo by Aline Mairet

DSC_3864_01 — 5th. Photo by Aline Mairet

And for my own pleasure, a street art piece found this summer, and then a tag of Gawd Mathieu Connery appropriated. Thanks Mister 500M !

DSC_4208_01 — 500M. photo by Aline Mairet

10603044_10152203776255443_1036949469_n_01 — Gawd- Mathieu Connery. Photo by Connery

Photos by Mathieu Connery and Aline Mairet

August 22, 2013

Off-Murales, a feminist vision of street art in Montreal, Canada

DSC_0563_01 — Stela, Lilyluciole for Off-MuralES

Last June, the first edition of MURAL festival took place on boulevard Saint-Laurent, in the heart of Montreal. Beside this official and stunning event (covered here, here and here), a group of women street artists created a non-event, called Off-MuralES, all based on illegal artistic actions. The collective was created by Lilyluciole, Zola, Stela, Wall of femmes, Harpy and Camille Larrivée, and joined by 52HZ and Zuzu. When I asked Lilyluciole to explain me the logic of this Off, this is what she told me:

“Regarding Off-muralES, it is composed only of women street artists. However, the initial motivations for participating in this group are different for each of us. We share the same values: anti-racism, anti-corporatism and feminism. I think we all try to assert our presence as women artists in the streets of Montreal while remaining as independent as possible. Regarding illegal street art, yes we claim this expression over all. In addition, the Off-muralES was created in reaction to MURAL Festival to offer an alternative vision of street art closest to social realities in which most of us live.”

Here are some illegal street art works from some of the collective’s members, Lilyluciole, Stela, 52Hz and Zola. You can now follow their work and action here.

Photos by Aline Mairet

June 20, 2013June 20, 2013

MURAL Festival, Montreal, Canada (part 1)

MURAL‘s first edition is what we can call a success. Montreal had never run such a massive urban art event … MURAL brought together some incredible local and international artists for 4 days of explosive creativity. Running up and down Saint-Laurent Boulevard to admire and document all the murals was delightful. After given you an idea of the murals in progress last Sunday, here are the completed murals of ROA, Troy Lovegates (aka Other), Escif, Omen, Phlegm, Reka One, Pixel pancho, A Squid Called Sebastian, Le Bonnard, A’shop.

DSC_0793_01 — Troy Lovegates (aka Other)

DSC_0826_01 — Escif – Barré means “Locked”

DSC_0775_01 — Escif – Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

Continue reading “MURAL Festival, Montreal, Canada (part 1)”

June 15, 2013June 17, 2013

MURAL Festival in Montreal, Canada: Work in progress

DSC_0662_01 — Pixel Pancho – work in progress

For the last few days, the first MURAL Festival edition has taken over more than 20 walls in Montreal, Canada, located around the oldest boulevard of the city called “the main”, namely Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Running from June 13 to 16, MURAL offers to the public the opportunity to see some of the big masters of street art at work. Street artists, graffiti artists and muralists have been bringing all their energy and their incredible talent to refresh the streets. Among amazing international artists are the best Canadian ones. The list is long, but impressive: Pixel Pancho, ROA, Phlegm, Escif, Reka One, Gaia, LNY, Ricardo Cavolo, FinDAC & Angelina Christina, Labrona, Troy Lovegates (aka Other), Omen, Jason Botkin, Chris Dyer, EnMasse, Stare, Squid called Sebastian, Le Bonnard, Paria Crew, A’shop, Wzrds gng.

Continue reading “MURAL Festival in Montreal, Canada: Work in progress”