La Paria and the undead at Foufounes Électriques

Already owning the title of Montreal’s oldest underground rock venue and all the cred that that entails, Les Foufounes Électriques has welcomed in the very cool La Paria, a seven-years-young collective of local street-artisans for an ongoing exhibition through the month of June. The brainchild of graffiti and skateboard artists Zema and Frank Lam, La Paria is a fully gifted fringe group with a big lineup of off-the-wall designers and painters.

For this summer, the group banded under the ever in theme of zombies and dubbed their exhibition “Le Zombie Show.” Seventeen members of the loose collective, from snowboard artist Matel to Tattoo Mania’s Bijou and Veronica have each filled up the first floor of the famous rock club with customized wood canvases made by the crafters over at Support Surface. Les Foufs are accommodating these skateboarders with a multimedia display of lighting and projections: all in the name of the cool, the counterculture, and the undead.

The show includes works that are both downright creepy and startlingly colorful—either way, it looks like these guys have more than enough talent to go around. And as their name suggests, La Paria feel completely at home in the bizarre and deviant terrain where Les Foufounes Électriques has found itself for over a quarter century. A constant for those of the punk crowd in search of a beer, a club to let their hair down, or simply a great live show, Foufs is now also a fully decked-out monster gallery until July 1st—so no, not exactly your local pub.

With some help from the urban fashionistas at Uranium, La Paria have since been flooding the city with promotional T-shirts and (literally) eye-popping flyers too. So be on the lookout for those gems, and while you’re at it, keep your eyes peeled around the city for more street work from this madcap collective. If there’s one thing they’re not, it’s predictable.

Le Zombie Show
Until July 1st
Foufounes Électriques | 87 Ste-Catherine East | laparia.ca