Montreal Under Pressure 2012

During a recent trip to Montreal, that had zero plans other than be somewhere besides home, I stumbled upon the Fresh Paint Space on St. Catherine.  Sponsored by Under Pressure, it’s an empty building with high ceilings, big windows, and plenty of space to host large scale installations.  This coming weekend marks their annual festival in support of the street art culture in Montreal, and the artists who live there and help it thrive.  The two attached galleries showcase a handful of angles on the variety of installations.  Not sure if the space is fluid, but it seemed to be, as two artists were hard at work on installs during our walkthrough.

All day Saturday and Sunday, Montreal will feature a wealth of gallery exhibits, skateboard competitions, b-boy battles and live music performances.  Bucktown’s own Smif n Wessun are headlining the official late night after party.  If you are looking for a last minute get away, I highly suggest a trip to Montreal this weekend.

In the coming days I will be posting more pictures from my travels about Montreal, all centered around the wealth of art the city walls possess.  My visit to this gallery was particularly striking in that it occured on my last afternoon in the city, after 3 nights of seeing pieces by these same artists, all over the cityscape.

The Under Pressure collective also use this platform to remind their patrons of the value in street art, just like any other art form.  They’ve been wronged by Chevrolet, who highlighted images of their art in a major ad campaign, with no attempt at financial support to the artists.  One install showcases the news clippings from this saga alongside a video installation of the artists retaliation efforts.  It’s an interesting case which raises awareness that most forms of street art go uncompensated, with the expectation and trust that their existence will purely be for the experience of the viewer.  Needless to say, my experience was all positive inside the gallery.