Words & Photos by Chris Dyer - Additional photos by Adi Khavous
This past week I participated in the first edition of MURAL Festival, which was Canada's first "street art" one (do not confuse it with graffiti). It was quickly put together by my friends from "Lndmrk", who where inspired by all the street art magic they experience at Miami Art Basel last December.
I was stoked to be a last minute addition to the line up which included some of the sickest local artists like Other, Labrona, Omen, Dsturbo, Jason Botkin, Scan, Stare, La Paria, A-Shop, Wzrdz Gang, EnMasse, etc, as well as international heavyweights of this movement like Roa, Pixel Pancho, Phlegm, Gaia, LNY, Escif, Reka and more. It was so dope to have all of these art super heroes together for a week blasting huge walls all over the Saint Laurent area of Montreal.
Taking a well deserved break
Though I spray paint quite often, I have never had the chance of painting something as massive as I did. The Festival gave me the huge side of a brick building, all the paints I would need and an electrical lift to use over a weeks period! I have never been able to afford that chance, so instead of getting too nervous about the ambitious task I got to work and created my biggest "Galaktic Dude" ever, and everybody seemed to enjoy it, as much as I enjoyed what the other artists where creating all around me. So epic.
What is also special about this event, which is planned to run for at least 5 years, is that after all the fun, art making, concerts n parties, the city is left with high quality artistic beauty in corners that might of looked sorta ghetto before, and that is an immeasurable gift to the people of our special island city. On top of that, the event was covered by international reporters and blogs from Martha Cooper (original photographer of Subway art), Brooklyn Street Art, Instagrafite, etc, etc, which will start to put Canada on the map of this very popular and relevant art movement. Hopefully other cities see the success we've had and do similar investments and events.
Chris' finished piece
Check out more of Chris' incredible work on his WEBSITE or FACEBOOK PAGE
