One of my personal favourite festivals kicked off recently, Mural Fest! This is the worlds largest outdoor urban art fest that attracts nearly 1.5-million + people over ten days. This years edition brings world-class artists such as PichiAvo, Germ Dee, Insane 51, Waxhead and so much more. In terms of the number of new walls and artists, this year is slightly smaller with 14 artists, but it also has street paintings from Waxhead and more installations as well. I also noticed that compared to last year, a lot more progress has been made on murals within the first two days, which is honestly fantastic. This update will showcase the new murals this year in addition to older works from the festival and other events/sponsors. When it comes to graffiti pieces in the alleyways, work was well underway but only a few were completed. We will come back next week to look at the final products of all the artwork.

PichiAvo Solo Show (Station 16)

Montrealers not only get to see PichiAvo make art on a large wall this year, but they also get to see his art at Station 16 as well. Running from June6th-23rd, this showcases some of his work on canvas. There were about six or so artworks, so we took a pic of some.

I also had to throw in this funky yet gruesome (for some) artwork I found at the gallery.

The Walls

Of course, the main event is about the new art that will find it’s home on the walls and buildings in Montreal. Some will last only a year while some will last for a few years. Aforementioned previously, there are fewer walls this year in terms of quantity of new walls but at the same token, less are being replaced this year.

Here’s PichiAvo’s wall for the 2019 edition.

Miss Van’s progress for 2019, which honestly looks spectacular already.

Marc-Oliver Lamothe working on his 2019 wall. It’s nice seeing the larger walls West of St. Laurent getting some art on them, it adds more life to the sector.

Gleo working on her massive wall for 2019. I cannot wait to see the final product on this one!

It was pretty tricky getting a shot of the whole wall due to the cars in the parking lot. Nonetheless, they’ll soon be gifted with a beautiful view.

Nikki Kuntzie and the progress of her wall so far.

Artworks from Waxhead from years prior. They will never get old.

This beauty in progress is made by Ola Volo, who also created a massive nine-story or so mural not too long ago in Mile-End. Her art always impresses me.

Leon Keer with a very accurate depiction of what fake news is.

Brian Beyung working on his 2019 wall, which replaced a wall of a farmer girl holding chickens. This wall was often vandalized and ran its course after a few years. Looking forward to the new wall for 2019.

Wall made by SnikrDBS and Rekalism.

Mural made by Dede in 2017 I believe.

Murals located in a delivery area on St. Dominique street in Le Plateau. I’ve been stuck here many times during some snow or rain storms. The artwork is from Stare, FiveEight, Nme and others.

After we kept walking, we saw a Waxhead and Cryote mural made late last year, with a mural by Cryote behind this piece that was made recently.

Waxhead/Cryote mural from last year.

Cryote’s mural that was recently made.

This beauty of a wall underway by Insane 51, just steps outside the Laurier metro station.

Which brings us to the most intriguing piece this year. Located on Laurier West, Joshua Vides transformed an old car wash into his own work of art. This one is by far the most unique artwork I’ve seen at Mural Fest. The car is real, but from afar we thought it was a well-done cutout of a car due to the illusion from the black and white paint.

Mural Fest 2019 once again shows how street art has been part of Montrealers DNA for 40+ years now. The city becomes more colourful by the year, with talent and art oozing from wall to wall. Montreal continues to become an open-air museum of the talented mural and graffiti artists locally and worldwide.