Nassyo

Born in 1974 in Paris, Slimane Ismaili Alaoui aka Nassyo is a French artist expressing himself in painting, illustration and graffiti, from which he comes from. Concerned with not confining himself into one stylistic code, Nassyo distinguishes himself with his outsider yet mastered urban art, seerved by a supple gesture and a refined writting, where attention to detail interacts with exuberance of shapes and colours.

Originally from the XIIIth Parisian district, Nassyo was a young college student when graffiti emerged in the Paris of the mid 1980's. Passionately interested in drawing since childhood, he is immediately attracted to its new art and its culture of "moniker", adrenalin and "free style". Inititated by his friend Soper, he decided to take up graff when discovering the book "Spray Can Art" (Henry Chalfant, 1987). He first experiments in collective process, within his group KDS, "kamikazes of spray", and others crews (BAK, VAD, TW, DKA) before standing out in solo, on the rooftops of Paris and along the aerial metro railways. Among the pioneers of this practice, he quickly becomes one of its specialists, and a figure of the 1990s Parisian stage, impressing more than a generation.

Climbing up gives him the opportunity to improve his unprecedented style. With the will to cover as much space as possible over a very short span of time, Nassyo develops a form of free style like the "BBC" (Bad Boys Crew), creating unusually complex graffitis within a limited range of colours. Far from the American codes of the time, he goes beyond the mere lettering to include characters, resort to automatic writing and others personal influences such as : comic book, sci-fi movies, classical painting and technical drawing, whether medical or mechanical. Profusion of lines, elements and energy : Nassyo's graffiti operates like a chaos which organises itself by accumulation, or like a versatile and fertile space invasion. According to the artist, his style can be likened to an active "graphic virus" : "I like to express this idea of strength that never stops, the power transmission from an host to another, energy in constant renewal". Hence, the notion of metamorphosis becomes one of his favourite topics, whether human, urban or vegetal. Nassyo considers the city as a processing hub, constantly speed, and likes to depict the frontier or the complementarity of men and machines, interacting and mixing, up to confusion and saturation level.

t the beginning of the 2000s, Nassyo develops his interest for painting on canvas on the occasion of a residency in a Parisian squat. From 2003, he invests his energy in a studio work, without abandoning street art, whose experience remains "vital" to him and to his balance. In a perpetual quest of graphic challenges, Nassyo enrichs his work with a new density, thanks notably to a more colourful pallet. Marked by his graffiti background, his painting favours spontaneity and improvisation, "direct" drawing, designed without hesitation :" There s a point in the set up of the artwork when I let improvisation rule totally". Nassyo likes to experiment techniques, mediums and styles, but he remains attached to graffiti and his themes of transformation and metamorphosis : " I do not want to get rid of graffiti in my painting as I intend to keep its unprompted energy and creative freshness. The idea of mix comes as a good definition of my approach, I am like a visual DJ".