Cédric Lopez

Coming from the Parisian graffiti scene, I started painting with graffiti in 1987. As a founding member of a collective of recognized Parisian graffiti artists, I created realistic characters and portraits with spray paint on the walls and various urban supports in the suburbs and the capital. These works were often associated with lettering in collective compositions.

I also studied briefly at the École Supérieure d'Arts Appliqués Duperré in Paris after obtaining a bachelor's degree in visual arts. After an artistic break of a few years, back in my native region, I gradually resumed painting. Working on canvas and experimenting with other mediums and techniques, my painting evolved to combine realistic figurative, abstract expressionism, graffiti and pop art.

Today, I still create spray murals spontaneously in the street, but most often in response to orders from individuals or communities. I also add my artistic touch by personalizing emblematic objects (Playmobils, spray paint, traffic signs, etc.) or custom furniture.

However, my main area of work is on canvases in the studio. My technique on canvas is composite, merging mediums such as spray paint, oil paint, acrylic, collage, gold leaf, marker, etc. My paintings combine a more classic style of portraits in oil or acrylic paint with the spontaneity and energy of urban art created with aerosol cans.

I particularly enjoy representing the human, often female, physiognomy by creating complex landscapes with infinite variations. I pay particular attention to the expression of looks and the evocation of introspection, of a certain mystery. Although my work remains mainly figurative, I like to immerse faces, bodies, animal subjects or landscapes in more abstract colored compositions, graphically rhythmic, structured or divided into contrasting chromatic zones which compartmentalize and animate the whole.