Meeting of Styles/Can You Rock !?!

 

Recently we all heard about the cancelation of the annual Can You Rock graffiti jam here in Montreal. Every year invitations go out to select and respected writers, both local and afar, to participate in what has been considered by many to be one of the premier graffiti jams in the city. I personally look forward to events like this (and Under Pressure) that bring the crews and community together, even if loosely, for a weekend of painting, chilling, and all hours partying. I meet new writers from all over and get to catch up with some of the locals I don't get to see that often. Even more, in recent years I've made closer ties with the organizers of these events, I volunteer, take pics, and help out where it's needed or where I can. So when Can You Rock didn't get off the ground this year, I felt it on a more personal level than I expected to. It also made me think about the importance of events like this not only to the local scene and its members, but to the image that Montreal has maintained as a pillar of the North American scene in general. This last statement might be a lofty one, but it's one I stand by. This city is arguably one of the most soaked and active around, has some heavy hitters and draws the attention of writers the world over.

I decided to dig into the vault to put together a MOS/CYR retrospective to fill the void of not having the event take place this year. It's not a comprehensive post, rather just some shots I never put up, and a few re-posted deservedly. Hopefully next year things will be more manageable and the team not too bogged down in other responsibilities. Remember, this is a volunteer run event and the organizers take a lot of their personal time to put these types of events on. So big ups to the crews, volunteers, and organizers over the years for putting on some great events and here's looking forward to next year's Can You rock being bigger and meaner than ever.

 

More soon. Stay posted.

5 Starz @Greenlight May 4 2012

I attended the 5 Starz exhibition at the new Greenlight Gallery at 3878 St. Laurent last Friday to check out some work by Fluke, Stack, Axe, and Ether and see what this new shop had to offer. Nestled in the heart of the Plateau, right across the street from the infamous Schwatrz's and Coco Rico this gallery/shop is the place to go for papers, pipes, bongs, and paint. I have never seen so many bongs amassed in one place like this spot. It's crazy. You could spend a whole lot of time checking out the selection of pipes and bongs. The paint and assessory selection is pretty solid too. The other side of the gallery is a one stop graffiti shop.

The night was pretty banging with fresh beats and beers to go around. The shop has excellent floor space to hold a good number of people and the walls provide for ample space for canvasses and other works. I think my favorite piece of the night was Stack's "They Live" Zombie Reagan, although Ether had a nice 2D3D combo piece that was close runner up.  Fluke had some prints of his body painting works -including a couple shot by Danny Girl -that he has done over the last while. Stack had a couple of other pieces up and Axe put in some of his character driven pieces to round off the exhibit. There was also a Five8 piece up behind the cash and I'm pretty sure I saw a Nixon piece floating around at one point.

The evening was full of so much conversation and foolery that I didn't even get that many shots of the works. I was too busy getting shit faced and snapping the show and shop. Go check out the shop to see the art in full, but especially to check out what they got in there. I'm not an aficionado of bongs or anything but I can tell you that they got some pretty unique pieces in there, besides the pipes, papers, magazines, paint and everything else.

Cheers to everyone there that night, Maysr and the Greenlight crew for putting on the event and evening. I'm sure this is the first of many shows and parties to come. You can find out more at thrir facebook page here.

Stay posted. Lots soon.