A look inside Graffiti Spot, a Richmond Hill bar plastered in neon street art

Graffiti Spot, a Richmond Hill bar that doubles as a street art gallery, is the brainchild of DJ and event producer Bliss Dariush. Last January, one of his friends purchased a space and approached Dariush about opening up a bar. He suggested creating a concept bar—specifically, one where they’d relinquish their walls to local up-and-coming street artists. “I’ve always told myself if I ever got an opportunity to start a business, I would want to help artists who aren’t getting noticed,” says Dariush. They hired a consulting company to create a list of all the street artists in Ontario they could find (approximately 80 of them), narrowed the list down and invited the rest to come check out the space. They ended up working with nine artists, who took over the walls with a ton of kaleidoscopic, mind-bending creations. Here’s a look inside.

Dariush designed the spot himself, and worked with a master carpenter to bring the wooden details to life. It’s modelled after an old-school saloon:

Here’s another view, with barrels hanging from the ceiling. The bar hosts themed evenings nearly every night. There are DJs on the weekend, stand-up comedy on Tuesdays and live jazz on Sundays:

This dystopian Toronto scenescape is by local muralist Leyland Adams:

This provocative piece is by local mixed-media and spray-paint artist Matt Pine (and yes, the bar is known as G-Spot):

This one was a collaboration between an artist couple—live painter Natasha Dichpan and illustrator Andre Castro:

The bathrooms weren’t left out. Muralist Meaghan Claire Kehoe painted these psychedelic images, and Dariush designed the floors to look like outer space:

Here’s Bliss:

9218 Yonge St., Unit 1, 905-771-9800, gspotbar.com.