Over the years, Spray Gallery's artists have thrived on the streets, using every possible urban surface as their canvas. Whether it be on a bollard, a rock, a bin or a wall, the artists have left their own mark in the urban environment. 

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The street art scene in Montpellier is a very active and ever-changing scene. Beginning with le Muralisme (a work of lettering), graffiti evolved into street art. The tags of the late 80's and early 90's gradually developed into throw-ups, stencil works and spray-ups all over the city. 

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In the 1990's Montpellier was internationally renowned for its breakdancing - in other words, it's b-boying and b-girling. With hip-hop booming, DJ-ing, emceeing, graffiti and breakdance all took a hold of culture in Montpellier, with the famous annual Battle of the Year b-boying competition taking place in the city. Graffiti writers would leave their tags on city walls to mark their territory, but fast-forward 30 years, and now they leave their trace with a a more extravagant piece, or œuvre.

 

Thousands visit the Battle of the Year qualifications and finals that take place in Montpellier today, bringing hip-hop culture, along with its 4 components (DJ-ing, graffiti/street art, emceeing and breakdance) to the city. International and local graffiti writers and street artists come to Montpellier to carry out their work on the city streets.

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Montpellier's Quai du Verdanson has been a key location over the years for graffiti writers and street artists to share their work and practice their creativity. The Quai du Verdanson is a 4km long stream/canal that stretches throughout the city. The Verdanson is an internationally recognised hotspot for artists where the Montpellier Metropole began to deem the practice legal. Over time, street art has become accepted by the Metropole, and the city has therefore become a street art hub. 

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From police pursuits of the 90's taggers, to today, the Montpellier Metropole commissions its city's street artists to carry out major projects. Today, there is a real community of street artists in Montpellier, who work both together and as individual artists. The Montpellier street art movement is a fast-paced art movement. Although still carrying out their street art antics, many artists have evolved their work into to post-graffiti work. Spray Gallery prides itself in selecting street artists from the city of Montpellier who have garnered our attention by seeing their talented work whilst marauding the streets. Our selection of contemporary artists have all been part of a street art movement that falls into the fastest-evolving art form of our generation. 

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