Blvd St Laurent is one of the streets in Montreal that has become known for its street art. Some of the past murals have disappeared as redevelopment swallows up older buildings but new murals keep appearing. Two of these recent murals are at Avenue Mont-Royal and were painted during Mural Fest 2026 earlier this summer.
below: This is Greg Mike’s contribution to the 2026 Montreal Mural Festival. It is about 85 feet long and 25 feet high. There is a white hand holding a paintbrush that has been dipped in blue. There are also several eyes and partial faces surrounding the woman with the blue circle around her eye.
below: Two little Waxhead creatures have survived – they were new in 2015. Looking good for their age!
below: This is part of a mural by Vincent Arnold, and is another 2026 addition to the murals along Blvd Saint Laurent. This pink faced man is reaching for ….
below: ….. fruit. The strawberry doesn’t seem too concerned though.
… where you can find two large murals on opposite corners.
below: Along Rue Marie-Anne is part of Izabelle Duguay’s “Toucher L’horizon” with its pink/blue mountain rising above the blue water. The whole mural wraps around two sides of the building.
below: The “Ange de Bordeaux” was Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954). He was Portuguese consul-general in Bordeaux France where he defied the orders of the Portuguese government and issued visas to thousands of refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied France, including Jews. He lost his job because of it and died in poverty after the war. The many accolades and awards that he received all came after his death. The mural was painted by Awie in 2022.
below: A blue lion is the centerpiece in Kevin Ledo’s mural on Marie-Anne (across the street from L’Ange de Bordeaux).
below: This is a more complete picture of the mural. The blue of the lion as well as the patterns formed by the blue squares and rectangles recall some of the features of Portuguese ceramic tiles.
below: Waiting to cross Blvd Saint Laurent.
below: More of “Toucher L’horizon”
One of the corners at St. Laurent and Marie-Anne is Parc du Portugal – you can see some of the park trees in the picture above. Directly across the park from Izabelle Duguay’s mural are more artworks with a Portuguese connection.
below: This is a portrait of Amalia Rodrigues. As you can probably surmise, she was a musician. Rodrigues (1920-1999) was known as the Queen of Fado; fado is a Portuguese music genre. The mural was painted by Paulo Carreira.
below: This mosaic, “Azulejos” was presented to the City of Montreal by the Portuguese community. The word ‘azulejos’ refers to the painted and glazed ceramic tiles that the artwork is made of.
below: A closer look at part of the image. There are a lot of little details hidden in it.
below: “Whatever make sense to your soul”. Interesting sticker even if it has a grammar mistake in the text.
below: Shitty graffiti!
below: “Ma voix est-elle muette a vos oreilles?” A literal translation is: “Is my voice silent to your ears?” Or would Portuguese be more appropriate?… “Será que a minha voz é silenciosa para ti?”
… a few murals seen on Boulevard Décarie in Montreal.
below: By Cecile Gariepy, holding up blue cube houses and showing them to each other in “Chez Nous” on a wall of Habitations Bourret housing project. a gift from the organization MU to the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM) for their 50th anniversary. 2019
below: Fonki painting of bulldogs and pugs
below: Tilly, another bulldog, painted on pink on what is now an empty building.
below: This portrait of Tilly was painted by Kevin Ledo.
below: This is the street art seen under the portrait of Tilly.
below: Dora the Explorer, in a Tim Hortons & Wendys parking lot.
There is a small collection of murals that pay tribute to actors and theatre in the area near rue Wolfe and rue Robin. All of them were painted under the auspices of MU, an organization that is devoted to creating murals about people and their community.
below: One of these murals is a portrait of actor Denise Pelletier (1923-1976) painted by Mateo (with help from Ilana Pichon, Rocio Perez, and Julien Sicre).
below: On rue Robin there are two matching murals side by side. On the left is one in blue with a man sitting on top of a ladder. The text reads, in French, “Ne compte jamais sur rien ne restez ni sur un echec, ni sur un succes” ( = Never count on anything, don’t dwell on either failure or success.). It is a tribute to the founders of Théâtre de Quat’Sous and was painted by Gene Pendon.
below: “Commencez toujours autre chose c’est la suite qui compte” = Always start something new; it’s what comes next that counts. This is a quote by theatre director (and writer) Paul Buissonneau (1926-2014). It is the work of street artist Sender.
below: La Roulette was the name of Paul Buissonneau’s first theatre. It began in 1952 – performances were outdoors in Montreal parks. According to a nearby plaque, this mural was not a Mu production, instead it was a La SPAG initiative (la société pour la promotion des arts gigantesques) and was created by Laurent Gascon. Gascon has produced eight other similar murals that showcase actors, performers, singers, etc.
below: Lastly, there is tribute (painted by Hsix156) to Dominique Michel (b. 1932), a Quebec actress, singer, and comedian. She began her career in cabaret but got a start in television in the 1960s.
For more information about MU, check out their website (mumtl.org)
While we were in Montreal, a number of these posters, or paste ups, appeared. They were part of MuralFest, a street art and mural festival that was happening at the time. Although I recognized some of the people who were pictured, there are a couple that I wasn’t sure of. Here are six that I saw (none of which had any ‘instagram likes’):
Kim Jong-Il of North Korea on a graffiti wall
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Joseph Stalin on the side of an old wood building
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someone in a helmet…. any ideas? Mussolini?
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Adolf Hitler high up on a brick wall
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Japanese? guy on a poster covered wall
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another person who I think I should know, but I don’t
Aires Libres and Outdoor Street Sales along Rue Sainte- Catherine, Montreal, on a sunny Sunday afternoon. There were many booths with different styles of art for sale. I stopped at a few of them.
below: “Siamoises” – What looks like twin cats in red dresses is actually a row of identical kitties, but the spotlight is on those two. A mural by Mono Sourcil, aka Maxlie Martel.
below: Designed by ANYO – squirrels with different coloured hats. I have only shown two, red and turquoise, but there are many more out there….. how many have you seen?!
below: Giraffes
below: A wish for peace and love, amor et paix, for Ukraine.
below: A small portion of a large mural by Pantonio showing two of the many birds in the mural – a large bluish black bird and a cute little purple and white bird.
below: “Mechanic Bird” by Dede Bandaid & Nitzan Mintz, with text: “Of my dozens of keys, the smallest one opens home”
below: This rendition of Daffy Duck is the work of Simon Beaulieu – throwup “text” says Simple.
below: Dog (wolf?) with laser eyes.
below: It’s an animal, right? The blue creature on the left. It was painted by Cryote and the whole panel was a collaboration with Labrona and Waxhead.
Breaking Walls was an Urban Arts and Culture event in Montreal that was held back in June of this year. It was supported by Kolors Worldwide (“Let’s kolor the world”) and MOS Canada – Meeting of Styles Canada. The event was held in a space between rue Moreau and the railway tracks, close to rue Rouen, in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood. In hindsight, I realize that I missed a couple of the murals the day that I was there. Additionally, a couple of the smaller pieces that I have included may be graffiti that pre-dates the Breaking Walls event.
below: I am going to call it a blue traffic circle because it’s blue and it has traffic related items in it such as an orange cone, the front of a car, street signs, and traffic lights yellow. It was painted by Sergio MB. Unfortunately, the red and white tag has already defaced the work.
To the left of this purple dog (by Hank) was a painting of a woman’s portrait in turquoise that unfortunately has already been tagged over. It was painted by Polographe and can be seen on his Instagram page.
below: Arlick Enigma ( Arlick PaXman Team), originally from Mexico, painted this wonderful portrait of a child wearing a parka with a fur lined hood.
On Montreal’s rue Ontario, close to rue Moreau and the railway tracks, there is a long brick building close to the sidewalk. At one end there is a painting of a squirrel with an object in his little front paws. This nut shaped object has a label that says Courrier Plus which turns out to be a trucking/transportation company and the owner of the building on which the mural is painted.
The rest of the mural features a red fire hydrant, a pigeon and a toucan with a beak in rainbow colours.
Eyes on the Streets 