The Best of Times are Now

Step back in time to pre-1998, to obscure places such as back alleys and beneath bridges. In pre-internet and smartphone eras graffiti was documented only by those who knew where to find it, and the photographs themselves served as artifacts attesting to marks made by graffiti artists, which were often ephemeral in nature.

The Best of Times Are Now refers to one of Winnipeg’s first public aerosol murals, painted in 1994 in Osborne Village on Winnipeg’s first legal wall. This location and the participating artists were at the forefront of Winnipeg’s graffiti movement, a community built through the need to self-source reference materials and inspiration without resources such as the internet, and with limited access to self-published graffiti magazines. Instead, artists relied on their obsession as the driving force to practice their tag, or nom de plume, repeating it thousands of times in sketchbooks, on walls, bus benches, and foggy bathroom mirrors and windows, eventually practicing two-colour outlines and more complicated wild style works.  

The Best of Times Are Now, is intended as a historical archive, featuring over 100 enlarged photographs documenting a glimpse of local graffiti history.  In addition, the original vintage photo album from Frenzee in 1994 is on display.