Above & Beyond Street Art

Above and beyond Street Art or « Au delà du Street Art » is the French title for the exhibition which took place at the Museum of La Poste (not other than the French post-office).
Located in the 14th district of Paris, La Poste owns a great exhibition space, on the ground floor of the post-office museum. So it was great to both check out this space and to discover that the post-office is more and more involved in artistic projects, and more than ever in urban art! I remember the great project: Paint BAL for which artists were called to customize mailboxes. The French artist Christian Guémy aka C215 in a master of it.

They did a great job with this exhibition, inviting the cream of street art: Banksy, C215, Invader, Dran, L’Atlas, Rero, Ludo, Miss.TIC, Shepard Fairey, Swoon and Vhils, but also Jef Aerosol, Jérôme Mesnager, …
There were pieces I knew, others done especially for the event, and new pieces from artists I love! I had a great time looking at every piece in detail… The light was very soft (so hard to take good photos), but focused on the art.

The exhibition summary:
For years, street artists have been using their art to channel expression in Paris, Sao paulo, London, New Delhi and beyond, casting a new light on the urban landscape and taking it beyond the purely functional. They use walls, fences, roads, pavements, road signs and letterboxes to share their poetic vision and treat passers-by to their work. Some of their creations put a smile on our faces and there are more thought-provoking. But street art always elicits a response – it pushes the enveloppe, it holds our gaze.
{…} Despite moving from walls to canvas, street artists continue to employ the techniques and materials they hold dear. Stencils spray-paint, acrylic paint, cut-out paper, charcoal, pastel, pads and resin are simply a means to an end for these artists, who have stepped off the streets and taken up residence is some of the world’s most prestigious museums and galleries.

I wanted to share here a few photos to keep this event in memory and to give an overview of the event for the ones who missed it (or wanted to see it again)! Enjoy…

I was happy to discover the artwork of DRAN, an artist we had never seen before:

DRAN was born in 1979 and lives in France. He draws beautiful everyday scenes with his touch of irony and his look on consumption society. Loved it!

Master BANKSY, with no need to give his bio here! Street Art legend from Bristol in the UK, Banksy is painting witty stencils on walls all over the world!

A great artist I really like is Shepard Fairey aka OBEY that I (Sandrine) had the opportunity to meet previously at a Levi’s Jeans event in Paris.
Born in 1970 and from Los Angeles, he points his finger at media manipulation and we like very much his posters. A great friend of our parisian artist, André.

Caledonia Curry, aka SWOON was born in 1978, works and lives in Brooklyn in the US. She likes to bring back photographs and sketches from her travels to make her art pieces. Beautiful combination of collages, stencils, compositions… simply beautiful!

Alexandre Farto, aka VHILS is a great artist who makes a sculpture out of a wall. I first saw his pieces in London, Shoreditch, and then Berlin and I just fell in love. So I was happy to see his pieces here. Born in Portugal in 1987: he has a very promising future.

L’ATLAS, born in 1978, works in Paris to reinterprete writing using black adhesive tape, stamps and paint.

LUDO always working with animals in black and light green. Often with a touch of humor, we love his artwork…

RERO is a French street artist, born in 1983, working and living in Paris. Rero’s error messages are invariably crossed out and always stencilled in Verdana fonts which he deems free of preconceptions and implications. Working on cancellation is his way of subjecting words to our own ways of interpreting them. He’s half between street art and conceptual art, and I’m really keen on his artwork.

And other artists I see more often on the streets in Paris, London or Berlin – such as:

Christian Gyuémy aka C215 (his portfolio here)

The master of pixel art: INVADER (his portfolio here) with his Space Invaders pasted all around the world in the most crazy places.

MissTIC the parisian artist with her famous balck and red stencils pretty feminist and activist.

And last but not least, Jef Aérosol to finish this very nice and very interesting exhibition:

Hope you enjoyed the virtual visit –  it was worth it to see it live!