Zïlon, a fixture of Montreal’s street art scene, has died | CBC News

Raymond Pilon, the multidisciplinary Montreal street artist better known as Zïlon, has died.

Saturday morning, Beauchamp Art Gallery, a gallery with which he worked, announced his passing.

The circumstances of Zïlon’s death have not been made public yet. 

“Today, we have lost a creator, an innovator and a rebel, an artist who has always known how to make a mark and has continued to inspire future generations,” Vincent Beauchamp, owner of Beauchamp Art Gallery, said in a statement. 

Prominent Montreal graffiti artist Zïlon has embellished the city’s streets and alleys for more than 40 years with his unique punk art. Androgynous figures were one of his trademarks.

Since the 1970s, he has participated in major events in many cities, including Paris, London and New York.

The rebellious artist collaborated to create many musical, theatrical and cinematographic works.

His death took many by surprise. Zïlon was working on several projects and preparing a new series of works called “VANDALE DE LUXE II,” according to Beauchamp.

“These unfinished projects will remain, like Zïlon himself, as a testimony to his inexhaustible creative energy,” Beauchamp said.

His longtime friend, host Geneviève Borne, paid tribute to the artist on social media.

“For a long time, Captain Punk had anchored himself in the black ink of his drifting and painted his shipwrecks on the walls of the city,” Borne wrote. “Art that hits like a punch in the face. That hits like a back alley fight.”