In the heart of Toronto’s uber-hip Bloorcourt Village, the Funktion Gallery oozes with personality: on one wall, Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and the Hamburglar drive a miniature graffiti-painted moving van carrying X-rated cargo. To the left hangs a Warhol-style portrait of Dirty Harry. Straight ahead are racks of T-shirts from Funktion’s successful clothing line. And scattered around the space are various art pieces of all sizes that have been heavily influenced by Toronto’s vibrant graffiti subculture. This is no ordinary gallery.
Stay a few minutes and you will undoubtedly run into José-Gabriel, 23, the gallery’s founder. A well-spoken, passionate leader, José-Gabriel did not enter the gallery scene under typical circumstances.
He credits Funktion’s genesis to a transformative event in 2002 when, on one of his first nights out with a spray can, he was arrested by an undercover police officer. Upon his arrest, the then 16-year-old José was handed over to two other officers who proceeded to beat him severely, leaving his face mangled and his heart disillusioned: “[Having once looked up to them], I was living in fear of the police in my neighbourhood. I became a scapegoat for a lot of things. I didn’t have trust in anybody.”
After his discharge, the police security videos depicting José-Gabriel covered in blood mysteriously vanished. He opted not to press charges. While his assailants were never brought to justice, they did unwittingly propel José-Gabriel towards his calling.
“Everything changed right then. I went from thinking, ‘I’m never going to do [graffiti art] again,’ to where I am today. If I hadn’t gotten the shit kicked out of me I probably would have stopped, but I think everything happens for a reason. I just decided this is what I’m going to do.”
Seven years later, the scars have healed, and José-Gabriel (presumed by many to be the graffiti artist Kismet) is motivated. With the help of several local artists including Jamie Roy, Will Gaydos, Brendan Go, Adrian Vit, Nalin Sharma, and TFUK, José-Gabriel has built an innovative social movement that resists categorization. Combining street art, apparel, and live music, the movement has a headquarters at the Funktion Gallery. In addition to public visits, the gallery hosts parties, exhibitions, graffiti events, and live performances for up-and-coming local artists.
The people at the Funktion Gallery are building a community that is now being embraced by a larger neighbourhood hit hard by a deepening recession.
José-Gabriel says his neighbours in the Bloor and Lansdowne area have been friendly and receptive to his vision, frequenting the gallery since its December opening. He believes the Funktion crew are “bringing a totally new vibe to the neighbourhood. [Residents] like seeing the younger crowd coming through and supporting all the businesses here, because a lot of people are going under right now.”
While detractors have argued that putting street art in a gallery betrays the essence of the medium, getting this movement away from the streets is deliberate and ethically motivated.
“[The gallery] is a way for us to give back after all the damage we’ve committed and all the bad things we’ve done as youth. We destroyed a lot of the city when we were younger. As you grow older, you realize if someone was to scratch my windows, I’d be really pissed off. You gain a certain amount of respect for what you’re painting on, and I try to get that through to everybody who comes through the door. A lot of kids come through here, and I know who they are—they’re serious vandals. But I tell them to paint on something that has been abandoned.”
Ultimately, these principles are critical to José-Gabriel’s conception of the Funktion Gallery’s larger goals within the community. “You’ve got to build a moral system for people,” he argues, “or else there’s no structure, there’s no control. Even though that’s the whole point of graffiti—the lack of control—there has to be a certain amount of respect for the people around you.”
The Funktion Gallery is located at 1244 Bloor Street W. Their next event, “A Mysterious Date w/ Answer” runs February 12-21. Tues. to Fri., 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sat. & Sun, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
