Background
– Urban Discovery –
BEBAR
BEBAR
Young franco-spanish artist, Bebar starts the graffiti very early. When he was 16 he became a member of the NSK Crew and decided to sign his paintings not by a lettering but with a cartoon character expressing the disgust.
His artistic approach was later defined as a clever mixture of street art and academic touches, due to his studies in a prestigious national school of art in Paris.
Thanks to this dual approach, he was able to create a personal style easily recognizable and that he likes to call « Bebarbarie » and thus participate in the major renovation project of his hometown Vitry-sur-Seine alongside Stew, Meushay and C215.
In 2013, he joined the MAC Crew and settled as a one-year resident at the Narvaland workshop with Kongo and Colorz.
In 2014, Bebar took place in the WIB Crew and painted alongside Frez and Shiche.
Attracted by New York, the cradle of the culture he loves, he obtained in 2015 an ERASMUS International scholarship allowing him to follow a part of his studies for 6 months at Parsons School. Down there, he meets old-timers like Sonic, Kister, Ink176, Ree, Frank, Nest … Leading him to join several New York crews like MSK TNG ROA and BAD Crew.
BLUNT
BLUNT
Blunt Eastwood was born in Paris in the early eighties. He has always drawn and get interested in graffiti by discovering paintings at « la petite ceinture » (an old rail train in Paris) and those on the St Lazare subwayline have motivated him to practice. First on railways and wastelands, Blunt Eastwood also worked in disused factories.
In 2008, he left France to Argentina. Down there, mixing different techniques as aerosol can and roller painting, he painted a lot in the streets because of the muralism tradition which is much more present than in Europe. In 2014, he came back in France and keep painting mainly in wastelands.
His graffiti style is defined as European with as strong tendency to complex and intertwined letters which he fulfills with happy and bright colors. He is today very inspired by his peers, especially crews like FMK, the NNC or TRP but also by contemporary artists.
COST
COST
Self-taught artist born in Paris in 1982, Cost has drawn since his young age and has today exapanded his range of techniques and supports by mastering as well painting, sculpture, work on glass… Linked to the hip hop culture of the 90’s, Cost has started graffiti in 1996. His projects take on a new dimension with his entry into the TPK Crew.
A collective of parisian graffiti artists, founded in the early 90’s, very active and productive, which remains faithful to the codes and values of historical graffiti.
Realistic portraits in black and white made with aerosol belonged to his first works. Then, he will turn to a colorful and dynamic lettering placed on walls, commercial iron curtains, movable supports… Passionate about the heights, Cost is mainly known for his elevations marked on the roofs of the French capital.
In parallel with his « in-situ » work, Cost develops a workshop practice on traditional media with techniques and materials that go beyond the strict framework of graffiti practice.
Presented in gallery and auction houses, Cost is one of these artists who have managed to integrate the market while preserving the vandal essence that characterizes graffiti.
LE CYKLOP
LE CYKLOP
Le Cyklop was born from a simple idea, almost a joke.To paint an eye on the metal posts that swarm on the sidewalks of our cities.
To have fun and to entertain. An evidence for their creator, graphic designer who turns into master in objects embezzlement.
With Le cyklop, the iron tubes adorn themselves with colors and open their eyelid.
Riparians, workers, children or tourists… They all adopt these nice little urban monsters who observe the world with a benevolent gaze.
From Paris to Marseille and Berlin till China, the cyklops brighten up our daily commutes with humor, love and mischievousness.
© Nicolas Gzeley – « Le Cyklop, fantaisies urbaines »
Collection Opus Délits #68, Critères Edition 2016
MISTER PEE
MISTER PEE
Born in 1975 in Paris, Mr Pee is a graffiti artist, illustrator and also likes poster collage.
He quickly joins this rich and stimulating visual universe through his father, a photographer, who introduced him to the world of images and comic strips.
Mr.Pee quickly assimilates aesthetic codes and is inspired by the fantastic universe of these comic strips.
He began graffiti at 14 in the vacant lots of the 13th district, and pursues his studies in applied arts and graphic design, later discovering illustration and digital work.
Also using paper and poster collage, for the precision of the work upstream and for the time saving for laying, especially for the major works.
Mister Pee turned his attention to framing formats close to the portrait: « Heads are for me like a scene, a screen, which allow me to evoke human feelings, emotions and inner demons ».
Mr.Pee defines himself as a « maker of images » characterized by humor and derision.
MR.RENARD
MR.RENARD
Mr.Renard has started painting in 2002 in the Paris area.
In 2009, he decided to travel in European capitals in order to paint down there.
Back in Paris since 2014, Mr.Renard paints colorful and electric asbtract, and also characters in the style of cubism.
Painting works on him as release. From positive to negative ones, he pours various emotions into his paintings.
In 2016, Mr.Renard, won the audience award of the graffiti and street art price.
PONÉ
PONÉ
Poné was born during summer 1985, in the western suburb of Paris.
He has discovered graffiti in the 2000s, by watching the graffiti pieces scrolling along the train lines to Paris.
At first, he was rather observant, discovering the tag with a simple marker.
Then he quickly picked up the spray paint for bigger and more colorful pieces.
It was around 2006 that graffiti took a major role in his life, spending his time in Paris, working on legal walls during the day, and tempted by less authorized excursions at night…
After several meetings, a close team was created, the group membership also, AOC then KSF, NAM and VMD crews.
Poné tasted all mediums; walls, blinds, trucks, trains, metros, in France and abroad (Italy, Spain, Greece, Belgium, Eastern Europe…)
After doing some paintings on canvases, and show his work in several exhibitions, Poné quickly returned to the base, to the essence: the real graffiti !
More quiet today, he still devotes himself to colored walls during the day, and remains on the lookout for a night out.
POX
POX
Pox is a 26 years old parisian street artist who grew up in Seine et Marne.
When he arrived in Paris, what was only a teenager’s game appeared to him as a true vocation.
After a graphic design licence, he realized that his place was not in an agency.
Then he decided to be fully devoted to urban art practices in order to become Pox.
The human being is the core of his work. These tough and harsh portraits realized with spraycans are the mute witnesses of the brutal world which surrounded us.
Africa, shamans, icons… All these subjects which feed his imagination and surpass each other. Pox likes the idea it remains unexplained things, even senseless. Painting is giving life to the unthinkable.
Graffiti art obsesses him, he feels the need to go in street again and again. What he likes in street art ? Materials, colors and social dimension. It’s a direct message for those who take the time to look at it !
STER
STER
« As comics readers, I started drawing since primary school. The meeting with the graffiti happened in 2002, and since it’s impossible to dislodge !
Go out for the night or painting big murals, for me the graffiti represents these both sides. I love as much the block letters i can see on the A6 highway, as the wild style on train line D, or the frescoes i could see on wasteland.
Always readable, I try to make move the letters and the colors on each painting.
Currently, I come back to what I started with: drawing, and mixing it with my lettering. » Ster
STEW
STEW
« Stew already chose his inner country some years ago. Japan captured the deepest reaches of his dream imagery. Kabuki masks, febrile lovers and enigmatic warriors found their way into his collages, frescos and paintings. Dragons and samurai summon a faraway imaginary world. One of his recurrent characters is Jizo, a protective creature, guardian of the temple, who is the benevolent mascot of Stew’s world. The artist draws on the engravings he tracks down. From them he retains the delicacy of the patterns, the seductiveness of characters with an ambiguous, deliberately androgynous identity.
There is a preference for flowing gestures and elegant poses, suspended and timeless. Perhaps too the power of scenes voided of depth, by broad flat surfaces heightened by dark borders, which make them all the more striking. He reinvents the subtle weaves of kimonos and other refined fabrics, working his backgrounds with careful attention to graceful details. Not without some humour, for instance, when he plays with his now familiar portrait gallery, moving and reinventing it, to the point of adding Elvis’ quiff to one of his Rising Sun silhouettes. Or he will even use newspapers from the archipelago as material for his creation.
He has not yet explored the real Japan. He is waiting for the right moment, aware that great encounters are not decreed, but take their time.
Pending this takeoff, clouds of birds in increasingly vivid colours invade his works, gaining the forefront. One of the most decisive in his career is an immense blue heron, 52 metres tall, on a wall of the thirteenth district of Paris, paving the way to all other daring innovations! Winged creatures multiply with the stencils, there again drawing on a meticulous iconography that he recomposes at will, from the hummingbird to the phoenix.
Coming from second generation Parisian graffiti, Stew has undoubtedly kept the flair for instant creation, the confidence in the gesture that leaps out and which now blooms in waves of joyful, hypnotic colours. »
© text by Sophie Pujas.
TEAM
TEAM GB-ODV-319
Team started by tags and graffiti pieces on several mediums (walls, trains, iron curtains, trucks) with many techniques and tools ranging from marker to spray can through the extinguisher!
He turned into frescoes and then canvases, without forgetting body painting in order to decipher the most living medium.
Founder of the « Gang Bangerz » crew, then he joined the international crew « ODV ».
Designer and recycler of objects of all kinds, he also worked on skateboards, pallets, plexiglass, steel plates of all sizes…
Live performer for all these artistic practices, he’s been running through Europe to enlarge his creativity by meeting artists in festival and jams.
VISION
VISION
Vision was born in 1971 in Pantin and grew up in Montreuil, in parisian suburb. 1983, he was only 12 and as many teenagers he was hit by the hip hop wave that has flooded Europe.
After few months of tagging without really being aware of the meaning, he made his first graffiti piece in 1986 and fonded the «Purple Kidz» crew, in reference to a famous song by Prince.
In the 90’s, Vision and his crew « Outlaw Crew » gave Ile-de-France a hard time. Railways, trains, subway cars, wastelands, everything is medium. Recognized international graffiti artist, his name written and painted so many times will mark the mind of a whole generation of Writers.
Self-taught artist, he also turned to painting on canvas since 1990 with a daily studio work since 2001. Vision takes part of many festivals, solo shows and group exhibitions in Paris, in province and abroad : « T.A.G » at the Grand Palais, fashion show Manish Arora, « ParisToutPetit » with Artcurial…
Today recognized for his work on canvas as well as on walls, Vision belongs to the most prolific writers.They are few from his generation to be still active as he is.
In 2016, he celebrated his 30 years of graffiti practice and does not seem ready to stop.
YOUPI CRU
YOUPI CRU
Dance and madness are keywords in this happy group of friends composed of 13 b-boys and 1 b-girl, always there to set the mood and impress the crowd by their moves and their musical dexterity.
Iconic group of the parisian hip hop scene for the past three years, the Youpi Cru has become a UFO far from the clichés of the B-boying crews. Just chillin’ and havin’fun.
MELVAX
MELVAX
Melvin is a young twenty-two years-old beatmaker known as Melvax.
He’s been playing music for four years thanks to the FL Studio software. Melvax belongs to the « Soundcloud generation » who has followed the rise of home studios.
Several influences can be detected in his work. Melvax enjoys experimenting and sporting new musical styles. He remixes the songs of a manga credits to create trap music, turns salsa into a hip hop song and even create a beat from a voice memo belongs to his practice.
OFFMIKE
OFFMIKE
Hip hop activist for many years, OFFMike was first of all a MC, a beatmaker, specialist of improvisation, a radio host, (One shot on Generations FM between 2000 and 2004) and an independant music producer (Pachyderm Strike, Apollojazz).
From 2006, within his collective Jazzefiq, he was able to showcase the place of the emcee in clubs, block parties and in other events by combining his improvisation skills and his ability to catch the audience attention while saving the essence of independant hip hop.
Animated by the will to bring the movement as far as possible, to transmit it from generation to generation, OffMike takes part in youth centers to teach the M.A.O (assisted music by computer) and to coach some rappers.
OffMike offers you an immersion into his original creative process by creating a music piece in live, from beat composition till recording !
GENIUS
GENIUS
Genius is a duo of French djs and producers who get close to new technologies in their creative process. Raised in a rich musical environment since they were kids. They daily discover news ways of creating, inspiring and acting. Read the word through music is their main purpose, their art.
« To bring into the world », as midwives, to produce and materialize songs has become one of their great passions, developing their own technique.
With his friends, he founded the geniuscorp, anthill of young innovative and independent artists, cultivating these new resources together to create a strong and accomplished musical diversity.
DJ LOD
DJ LOD
International deejay and producer, Dj Lod is part of this generation of Djs who have kept the basics of Djaying and sampling. Amateur and « true » defender of hip hop culture since 2000’s, Lod belongs to this generation torn between analog and digital. Vinyl addict, he doesn’t hesitate to travel the world in search of the rare pearl.
Born in Paris in 1983, he first signed with Catapult label, which has since disappeared.
He became a member of Hip Hop Resistance and Underground Explorer (on Generations 88.2 fm), a collective that has been organizing concerts in Paris for more than ten years.
From funk to hip hop, Lod is an eclectic deejay. Sponsored by Nixon, he has travelled the world with artists as Specta (Saian Supa Crew), Wildchild (Lootpack) and Planet Asia (Cali Agents).
Then, he will join Melanin 9, becoming a stage performer and deejay alongside this emcee from London.
TISMÉ
TISMÉ
Tismé owns many skills at the same time : producer, emcee, beatboxer, drummer and deejay, this jack-of-all trades enjoys dispersing positively. He composes for the Hip Hop dances’ big names and his compositions have also been spread during international battles since 2011.
After winning several times the Beatmaker Contest and BeatDance Contest (beatmakers batlles), he released his first instrumental EP « Mimétisme » with the label Pschent at the end of 2011.
In 2012, he joined the artists collective JAYFLY in Dunkerque, released the beat-tape « Magnetism » dedicated to dancers and regularly performs on stage with the band UNNO (Taratata, Trans’Musicales, Discoverings of the Printemps de Bourges, The Great Escape). He was also the stage director of « Dans la peau d’un Noir », (« In the skin of a black person ») by Clémentine Célarié which was played at the Avignon Festival for two consectuive years.
In 2013, he released the album « DREAM BIG » alongside Daz-ini and organized monthly the « Sessions Metissées », where he invited many beatmakers and MCs of the French underground scene.
Today, Tismé and UNNO complete their first album (after the release of their first two EP at Nowadays) and he refines his first solo project.
About the story.
