Blek Le Rat "Paris-New York, New York-Paris"
Jonathan LeVine Gallery
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Jonathan LeVine Gallery presents Paris—New York, New York—Paris, a solo exhibition featuring new works by Xavier Prou, also known as Blek le Rat. For this show, he has created a new collection of large-scale paintings using pouchoir (stencil) techniques, and a video installation featuring his interventional street art pieces over the past 25 years. Blek le Rat returns to the gallery for Paris—New York, New York—Paris, marking a much-anticipated first solo show in New York for this celebrated artist.
A pioneer of graffiti writers in Europe, Blek le Rat was one of the first people to use stencils for creating art on the street, using icons instead of writing his name. He was first exposed to graffiti in 1971, in New York, but didn't start making his own until ten years later, in Paris. Inspired by a stenciled portrait of Mussolini, which he saw during a trip to Italy among WWII ruins, he created a silhouette of a rat running along the streets. He stenciled the rat for two years and quickly became recognized around Paris. This marked a monumental break from the dominance of New York's graffiti style. His method of creating image based art to complement the classical architecture within the context of European cityscapes changed the face of urban art and still continues to greatly influence younger generations of artists around the world. The artist’s new monograph, entitled: Blek le Rat—Getting Through the Walls, published by Thames + Hudson, beautifully documents his entire artistic career, over the past twenty-five years.
Media
Schedule
from October 18, 2008 to November 15, 2008