The yellow smiley of Montréal: who is MakeNoize?
A bright yellow smiley, grinning from walls and corners across Montréal — once you see it, you see it everywhere. It is the signature of the artist MakeNoize, whose studio is at 4455 Saint-Denis and whose original works are available at L'Original.
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.
The smiley: from pop culture to street art
Few symbols are as loaded as the smiley — born in 1960s advertising, adopted by acid-house and rave culture, then reclaimed by street artists as a sign of joyful defiance. MakeNoize's yellow smiley plugs straight into that lineage: instantly readable pop-art iconography, turned into a personal tag that brightens the city.
A studio in the neighbourhood, at 4455 Saint-Denis
MakeNoize works from a studio at 4455 Saint-Denis, on the Plateau — the same creative address that anchors L'Original in its neighbourhood. Working steps from where the art is shown keeps the link between the street and the gallery alive, and keeps the work rooted in the Montréal that inspires it.
Bring a smiley home, from L'Original
The smiley on the wall is for everyone; the original is for you. At L'Original you can collect a signed MakeNoize piece — a jolt of pop-art colour with real street credibility, by a living Montréal artist. That is what a physical, local gallery is for: turning a shared city symbol into a work you can own.
