A cornerstone of Nottingham’s creative scene, Montana has made a name for itself as not just a paints shop, but a hub for local artists of all kinds – thanks to partners Sylvia and Dilk behind the business. Whilst Dilk is a well-known local artist Sylvia’s recently been taking the lead on some exciting collaborative projects. We sat down with her to chat about the importance of the local creative community, and the shop’s international reach…
The UK’s flagship store, Montana Notts is an independent shop in collaboration with Montana Colors graffiti paints and markers. Though it is one of the very first in a series of worldwide stores in iconic cities such as Amsterdam, Tokyo, Bangkok, and more, it’s also deeply rooted in the local – shaped by Nottingham’s creative scene, and particularly the shop's location in Sneinton market.
Sylvia talks me through the shop’s long 23-year history, intertwined with her own arrival in Nottingham in 2003. The business was originally known as Coverage, run by Dilk in the West End Arcade. Sylvia, then recently arrived in the UK from her native Hong Kong, owned a shop opposite. The community in the arcade, she tells me, was how she got to know the graffiti scene, and put down roots in the city.
“I’d hang around with Dilk and his friends, and also some of my Hong Kong friends – we started painting. We used to have four or five girls in a group painting… but we weren’t good at it! It was just for fun,” – for Sylvia, painting has always been about relationships. “Painting for me is friendship. Go with a mate, have some food, have a laugh.”
It was thanks to Dilk’s friendship with Barcelona-based Montana Colors that he was offered the opportunity to rebrand Coverage as the UK’s flagship Montana store. In 2008 the shop moved to Hockley, selling exclusively Montana cans, and then on to Sneinton Market in 2017, where it expanded to include a wider range of products including markers, prints, clothing and magazines.
Now when people call me, I know exactly what paint they need... some people have just used the same colour for the past twenty years
Montana Notts has carved out a name for itself as a signature shop in the city. The shop’s diverse clientele – often long-term regulars, including students from Confetti and Nottingham College – appreciate the advice and expertise that Sylvia and Dilk offer. “Now when people call me, I know exactly what paint they need... some people have just used the same colour for the past twenty years,” Sylvia laughs.
As well as offering a bigger, bright new space to set up in, Sylvia tells me that Sneinton has been such a good fit, thanks to its now flourishing creative community. Sylvia has led Montana’s collaborations with neighbouring businesses, like Neon Raptor and Working Man’s Kitchen.
The Newstand Project at Montana: a pop-up style kiosk and exhibition space hosted within the Montana shop, is another exciting collaborative project of Sylvia’s. Designed and built by long-term customer and now close friend JP Artist, the Newstand is a brightly painted nod to kiosks found in European and Asian streets, complete with mock signs in playful font and a faux window hatch.
When I visit, it’s hosting an exhibition by artist FFWIH: a retrospective on his recent trip to Sri Lanka. Inside the kiosk are mounted drawings, paintings, and paraphernalia from his trip; outside, a limited number of zines are available for sale.
The kiosk was inspired by trips that Sylvia and Dilk took to places like Hong Kong and Japan. In Asian metropolises squeezed for space, kiosks offer businesses a way of getting their brand into the street and increasing their visibility.
The equivalent in iconic European cities, like Marseille, Toulouse, and Barcelona, comes in the form of ‘newsstands’: self-contained kiosks selling magazines and coffee in public spaces like parks and plazas; becoming hubs in peoples’ daily routine. The Newsstand Project plays on both these ideas: bringing artist brands, print media, and street culture literally inside the shop.
It’s a playful space – one that invites interaction – but also, importantly, provides artists with a platform and physical exhibition space, which are often formal and expensive. The opening night of each show is an opportunity to celebrate and bring creative people together.
The Newsstand Project is currently self-funded – which is both costly and takes significant effort – but it’s clear that for Sylvia, being able to support local artists is worth the investment. The current exhibition, which opened mid-August, is by another Confetti student, Wozza, who’s been coming into the shop for three years during his studies.
“Seeing artists build up their confidence, and work really hard, you want to show them what they can do,” Sylvia says to me earnestly.
Though the project has only been hosting exhibitions since May, Sylvia has big ideas for it. First focusing on supporting local artists, she plans to next invite international names to come in and create exhibitions alongside them – enriching the creative scene here, bringing fresh perspectives into the city, but also helping “put Nottingham into the bigger picture for artists”.
“That’s my idea, with the kiosk, I want to have collaboration… so the international will boost our local artists, and local artists will get known by the outside.”
Montana’s reach looks both closely inwards, to the rich creative scene Nottingham has to offer, and broadly outwards, fostered by a plethora of international friendships in the graffiti world. In September, Sylvia will be a guest curator at the ALL CAPS Street Art Festival in Rotterdam. Impressed by the projects and collaborations Sylvia has led, the team selected her from an array of international women artists to curate an exhibition.
The exhibition, which will feature thirty artists, will be titled Drawing Back To Basics. It’s all about returning to fundamentals, Sylvia says. For her it’s as a response to the increasing digitalisation of art production and circulation. While platforms on social media, and technological tools can be useful, she thinks it's important not to “lose your touch with real pen and paper… you need to do the basics first. With graffiti – you go to the wall.”
Although two local artists will be participating in the exhibition, Sylvia’s disappointed that she can’t bring more. Both JP and Dilk will be showing work, along with a handful of other artists from the UK. “Hopefully if it goes well I can do a bit more curating… the next one I’d like to be a bit more in control of the artists. I want to look after my own people.”
As we wrap up our conversation, a few regulars have already dropped into the shop, to check out new prints and say hello. It’s clear that fostering a creative community – in Nottingham and beyond – is integral to running Montana Notts. Sylvia and Dilk’s commitment to collaborations has helped the shop function as a hub for all kinds of artists – connecting them to each other and opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise exist.
As always, new things are always on the horizon at Montana Notts - from their involvement in the upcoming Art Fest, to exhibitions at the Newstand Project.
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