FRESH PAINT Exhibition Binds Art and Community

Posted by Dori Julian in FringeBlog on September 24, 2014

Local artists are pushing the boundaries of Street Art and redefining accessibility by bringing together the community of Montreal North through a collaborative exhibition put on by the Maison culturelle et communautaire de Montréal-Nord and the Fresh Paint Gallery.

The Fresh Paint Gallery originally began as “more of a joke,” said manager Adrien Fumex, when asked about the connection between Street Art and Fresh Paint.

The gallery actually first opened its doors thanks to the development of Under Pressure, Montreal’s own international graffiti convention. Having just put on its 19th edition early in August, the convention has been growing for several years, establishing a network of artists in the process—enough of a network to form Fresh Paint.

The sidewalk art promoting the 18th edition of Under Pressure caught the attention of a representative from the Maison culturelle et communautaire de Montréal-Nord. They saw the street art as a way to reach out to the Montreal North community, especially youth.

Having the second largest high school on the island, “Montréal-Nord has a massive student population isolated from the street art and graffiti culture of downtown Montreal,” Fumex explained.

“There are so many great new spaces in Montreal waiting to be discovered so I think that was part of my motivation for this project, to bring more cultural events there,” Fumex added.

The motivations of Fresh Paint and the Maison culturelle et communautaire de Montréal-Nord aligned instantaneously when conceiving the project back in the winter of last year. The cultural centre wanted to bring in something fresh to engage the community and to bring some positive attention to the area.

As for Fresh Paint, they’ve always been dedicated to making art and urban culture relatable and accessible to the general population as well as bringing the community together through artwork.

“One of the goals of the project was to make links with the people that are there by piquing their interest and making the artwork relatable. We tried to bring a lot of different kinds of work, many different mediums so that at the end of the exhibition, people can point out at least one piece and say, ‘oh I can do that, in my own way I could appropriate that and do my own thing,’” said Fumex.

The Fresh Paint exhibition features nine emerging artists—XRay, Isaac Holland, MonstR, Hoarkor, Adida Fallen Angel, MissMe, Carolina Espinosa, Gawd and Mc Baldassari. Four of them—MonstR, Adida Fallen Angel and Hoarkor, a duo made of Hoar & Kor—also collaborated to paint the sidewalk outside the centre. All artists were also previously featured in the gallery’s latest exhibition.

“This exhibition mirrors what has been done in the gallery; it’s a mashup of work to represent what we do downtown,” Fumex said.

“Their artwork explores many different techniques and aesthetics to reach a range of people.”

Both organizations’ open-minded spirits and optimism in terms of the artists and communities involved has made the collaboration between the two a success.

Having already done workshops in the cultural centre, Fresh Paint hopes to return, offering more workshops to a larger range of age groups in order to continue to inspire and educate though artwork.

“This collaboration was a first step,” said Fumex. “If people actually asked for more workshops, that would be a success for us.”

The plan is to continue connecting different areas of the city of Montreal through artistic initiatives.

FRESH PAINT // Sept. 11 – Oct. 19 // Maison culturelle et communautaire de Montréal-Nord (12004 Rolland Blvd.) // Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. // Free