Monk.E: Montreal muralist and rapper
A teenager in Drummondville picks up a spray can. Three decades later he has painted some 1,300 walls on several continents, released a shelf of rap albums, and earned a word he invented for himself: 'alchimiographiste'. This is the story of Monk.E (David Desharnais-Yergeau), one of the artists represented by L'Original.
From a small-town wall to São Paulo and Dakar
Born in 1982, Monk.E was a professional by around 17, and never stopped moving. He turned graffiti into something closer to spell-casting: surrealism, calligraphy and figures that braid humans and nature together, often carrying a message. The walls took him around the world, from a mural representing Québec in São Paulo to a tribute in Dakar.
Two voices, one artist
Monk.E never chose between the wall and the mic. A rapper and producer who co-founded the collective K6A, he raps mainly in French, and his 2024 album 'Infrarouge & Ultraviolet' (home to the track 'Les Gatekeepers') reads like the soundtrack to his paintings. Visual art and hip-hop aren't two careers for him, they're one continuous voice.
A living icon, on your wall
A MURAL Festival regular with works catalogued by Art Public Montréal, Monk.E is one of Québec urban culture's most recognizable figures. Through L'Original you can bring that energy home, an original by an artist whose story is still being written across the city's walls.
