Current @ the Arsenal

Mega contemporary art space Arsenal, will be holding its closing event of Current, a street art exhibit curated by Alejandro Figueroa.  The weeklong show invited local and international street artists to create their works in a gallery setting, allowing visitors to view the works in progress.
I stopped by earlier in the week to scope out some of the pieces.

Iron getting the signage under way

Crates full of blue chip art served as a set. Kevin Ledo's gold leaf star seen in the background

Art crating and moving has always fascinated me.  Herein lies a Franz West.

Getting up close to Ledo's gold detritus

Ledo working it out

This is the second out of three large format portraits that Ledo is mounting

Labrona working on his signature faces

Labrona set up a series of barrels in the loading ramp, coming to life with his imagery

Alexis Diaz is back! A crosshatched heart is starting to come through.

For those who don't want to splurge on some art at the moment, stamps representative of each artist were created so you can take home a freebie.

The dirty business of art. Ledo and Zoltan illustrate.

For a full list of the artists involved check out here, or go see it in person!

mural festival '14

This year's Mural Festival saw fourteen new walls go up along St-Laurent and surrounding side streets.  In addition to the remaining fourteen murals from the 2013 edition, the art installations and the usual street sale cacophony there was a lot to see and do.  Above: Alexis Diaz's intricate crosshatched creature.

I only caught Kashink's giant man-creature in progress-a repeat visit to view the final wall is in the plans.  Fun and colourful at first reading, dig a little more and learn that Kashink uses her art as activism with a sense of humour. Check out 50 Cakes of Gay and enjoy.

Oh man, this one is a good one.  This is Bezt from the Etam Cru.  I had a chance to sit and talk with Bezt while he contemplated the scarf's color and pattern which had gone through a couple of incarnations.  At first grey with pattern, then brown with flowers, an attempt at a skull motif followed before it became the textured brown scarf seen above.  Loving this.

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photo by mark unterberger

The above piece is by an awesome friend, artist Kevin Ledo whose portraiture skills just blow my mind.  The image is of an Edward Curtis photograph taken in 1923 of a Hupa woman.  Ledo's figurative body of work often focuses on feminine icons, divinity and holiness.  Ledo's newest wall fits right in.

I can't show the whole Mural Festival contingent to you, as these walls are way more amazing in real life, but if you're in Montreal you can find the rest here.