Graffiti and street art in Montréal: a short history
Montréal is one of North America's great street-art cities. From 1970s tags to today's monumental murals, here is how graffiti grew into a recognized art form — and how a local gallery like L'Original now represents the artists who came up through it.
L'Original is a Montréal gallery-atelier with two physical spaces — in Old Montréal (rue Saint-Paul) and on the Plateau (rue Saint-Denis) — representing the city's street-art and pop-art artists.
From New York tags to a global movement
Modern graffiti emerged in late-1960s and 1970s New York and Philadelphia: signatures (tags), then bubble 'throw-ups' and elaborate 'pieces' on subway cars. It spread worldwide as hip-hop culture travelled, evolving from pure lettering into the broader, image-rich field we now call street art.
Montréal: Under Pressure, MURAL and the Main
Montréal built one of the continent's strongest scenes. Under Pressure, founded in 1996, is one of the longest-running graffiti festivals in the world; since 2013, MURAL Festival has covered Boulevard Saint-Laurent — 'the Main' — in large-scale works each summer. The Plateau, Mile End and Saint-Laurent corridor became open-air galleries.
From wall to gallery — and why it matters
Street art's path mirrors pop art's: what began as outsider work is now collected and exhibited. The key is doing it without erasing the culture — by representing living, local artists fairly. That is L'Original's role: a physical gallery in the neighbourhoods, championing pop art, street art and the graffiti lineage, with studios and artists rooted right here, including at 4455 Saint-Denis.
