REGIMENTAL ONETON, BY LILYLUCIOLE

                                     

 MEETING REGIMENTAL  ONETON by LILY

                                                                 

J’ai découvert un pochoir de Regi lors d’une promenade au centre ville de Montréal, et cela a été un vrai choc.

Plus tard, j'ai eu l’occasion de voir d’autres oeuvres de lui (expositions Fresh Paint Gallery, SUBV). Cela a confirmé mes impressions.

J'ai donc voulu l'interroger au sujet de son travail et  de sa vision du Street art à Montréal. Il a gentiment accepté de répondre à mes questions en Février 2012 et m’a proposé de découvrir sa dernière œuvre à la Fresh Paint Gallery.

Voici le résultat:                  

I found a stencil of Regi while walking in a street of downtown and that was a real shock

Later, I had the opportunity to see other stuff of him (exhibitions Fresh Paint Gallery, SUBV).

That confirmed my first impressions.

So I wanted to ask him about his work and his vision of street art in Montreal. He kindly agreed to answer my questions in February 2012 and also propose me to see his last mural at Fresh Paint Gallery about Renaissance.

Here the result :

Crédit Photo : Lilyluciole

 About your work

What is your training?

I have no formal training. I never had the aspiration to be taught how to express myself. I also feel if you are being taught how to paint by someone, being taught their technique, you start to paint like them, and the goal for me is to have a style totally independent and original. I want to paint like me not like my teacher. You can attend school or be trained formally, but that’s just not the way I do things.

   

Talk to me about your work? Why have you chosen the stencil in your work?

People often think I exclusively use stencils for my work, I guess that’s my fault because the majority of the work I have put in galleries and the street have been stencil work. Stencils are a small part of my art. I also work with oil paints and acrylics, inks and watercolor. If you came in my studio you would have a hard time finding a stencil painting cause the majority of the time I’m either working on a drawing or a large scale oil painting.[…]

I started with stencils because I was being asked to do murals, to be executed in a short time frame. The easiest and most efficient way to do that is with stencils.[…]

Another reason is I don’t have very much patience, in my studio I paint in 30 minute bursts because my mind starts to wander and I start to rush the piece, which is death for a good piece of art. So the stencil allows me to do most of the work at home in my own time […]

                     

What are your influences in your work?

If anyone has influenced me it has been Carravagio, because he was a bad mother fucker who painted better than anyone, he uses a lot of crimson and works with flesh a lot, he makes the flesh come out of the darkness and I will admit when I saw that I tried to integrate that into my stuff. There are other artists I enjoy, but they are just there to give me confidence, people I see myself in, people who say it’s ok to hang out in left field.

What is the difference between your work in gallery and in the street?

Galleries won’t touch me with a ten foot pole. Firstly I am too much of an abrasive and outspoken person. I don’t believe in sucking someone’s asshole for an art show, I don’t believe in nepotism, I don’t fill out grant applications and I don’t write long winded explanations about my art. My art is also described as shocking and over the top. Galleries want something SAFE [ …] 

 I think that artists now are more equipped to do their own promo and art shows, so this whole shishi gallery thing will be over soon enough. I also prefer the street as my gallery, it’s much bigger and more visible, if I put up something on the street I know that 1000 people will see it that day and people will be taking pictures of it and enjoying it immediately. Art is for people ,not just rich people.

What are your next projects?

I am currently just painting in the studio developing my body of work and getting better at my craft, I firmly believe that if you work constantly your work will eventually become undeniable. I am also currently filming a documentary on street art with a local film compagny, they are focusing mainly on street art and graffiti, that should be out in 2012. I’m working with the Fresh Paint Gallery in Montreal, and I should be heading in there in the next few months to execute one of the largest and detailed stencil based murals ever, I’m looking to make it about 20 feet long and 10 feet high with a bunch of 5 to 7 layer stencil characters, the theme is renaissance art[…]

I will also organize a show this summer to showcase the large scale oil paintings which are currently stacked up in my house.

 

Street Art in Montreal

How can you define the Street art in Montreal? What do you think is special here?

We have some top shelf Graffiti that is internationally recognized, but we have a lot of toys in this city that give Graffiti a bad name. The street art is not on par yet in my opinion, just a bunch of college kids designing wheat paste posters with other people artwork. […]

I think I have been impressed a total of 3 or 4 times in the last five years with street art in Montreal, every other time I’m just like “meh”.

What is the difference between your work in gallery and in the street?

Galleries won’t touch me with a ten foot pole. Firstly I am too much of an abrasive and outspoken person. I don’t believe in sucking someone’s asshole for an art show, I don’t believe in nepotism, I don’t fill out grant applications and I don’t write long winded explanations about my art. My art is also described as shocking and over the top. Galleries want something SAFE, that they can sell to a white person in a white room with white wine, that’s just not me and I think the gallery owners can smell that off me. All my shows have been put on independently by me, and I am ok with that […]

 […]I also prefer the street as my gallery, it’s much bigger and more visible, if I put up something on the street I know that 1000 people will see it that day and people will be taking pictures of it and enjoying it immediately. Art is for people ,not just rich people. When it comes to the street I like to put up original hand painted posters to stencils to hand painted spraypaint cans to large scale stencil based murals. When I put on an art show I like to show the oil paintings and drawings.

 

What is your relation with the other artists?

I don’t have a very good relationship with other artists. There is a handful that I talk to and enjoy the company of. This has to do with my disgust for networking and handshaking and my blunt opinion on art which I believe a lot of people take offence to. A lot of artists think I have a huge ego and that I am an asshole, what they don’t know is I am my own worst critic, if they think I am hard on them I am ten times harder on myself.

[…]

I have been kicked off of art shows, blacklisted and phased out of projects, it bothers me for a while, but then I remind myself it’s all about the WORK. It’s not about your artists friends or a collab mural or a group show or exposure or sold paintings or adulation, it’s about the WORK. A wise graffiti artist once said: “all art is, is a lot of hard work”.

 

Are you interested in the other international artists of Street art?

I would say I am interested in viewing international Street Art. You have to think globally with art, view styles from different countries, I think Berlin has some of the best stuff out there, in fact I think I look more outside my country for works of quality than within it. But I think if I hear the words Banksy or Shepard Fairy I might throw up on myself, the market is saturated with the same names over and over and over, so dig deep and find something new

What will allow to artist from Montreal to be more recognized in Canada or other countries?

If the Canadian underground arts community want more international recognition they have to do what every other “successful” artist does: Create a quality body of work, set a new standard, do large scale well promoted art shows, align themselves with companies and promotional agencies, suck some dick, tickle a few assholes, get people drunk enough to buy your work and create a BUZZ, I suggest shooting a politician or blowing your head off in front of a canvas and calling the painting “Success”.

Photographies from Fresh Paint Galery, June 2012

Pour plus d’informations/More Informations: http://regimentaloneton.blogspot.ca/