Alexandre Petrus

Alexandre Petrus alias AP, is a self-taught stencil artist born in 1988 in the Paris region, living and working in Villeneuve-les-Avignon. As a child, comics were the first art form he discovered and fascinated him. At the age of 11 he had fun illustrating his own stories and reproducing his favorite heroes.

After graduating with a master's degree in graphic communication in 2012, he prefers to put the digital world aside and try his hand at a series of other jobs. These have for only thread the notebooks of drawings which he fills. Supported by his entourage, he chose to invest in what really drives him: drawing. He then started customizing sneakers and bags that he resold to make a living.

In 2020 he joined the artistic collective GRAFFITI PARIS. This meeting will deeply change his artistic practice. He discovers the world of street art and the practice of aerosol: it is the trigger. Paradoxically, he learns by himself the techniques of the spray can by animating workshops of initiation to graffiti for companies and individuals. It's by coming across a work of art by Artiste-Ouvrier that he discovers the stencil and decides to experiment with this technique... it's a revelation. He realizes that this practice channels his creative energy and makes it his medium of choice.

He learns and develops his art by observing the artists he admires such as Jo Di Bona, C215, Epsilon Point or even the painters of the XVIII like Johannes Vermeer. Meticulous in his cuts, instinctive in his painting, he explores the union of opposites. Between creative spontaneity and artistic reflection, he extracts the essential from the images.

A black stencil and a white stencil are affixed on an abstract background where colors and movements coexist. It is on a background of Asian philosophy that takes shape the unity in the duality. Nature, animals, popular culture or architecture, his paintings are an ode to life, a tribute to what exists and has existed, they are full of enthusiasm and optimism is what he wants to share.