Art is everywhere in Paris. Indoors, of course, in any of the city’s many world class museums. Outdoors too in the amazing gothic or ornate art nouveau architecture. And in the streets as well. Paris’ urban canvas is covered in temporary murals, graffitis, poetry and installations. Some of the main street artists, the ones who have a trademark style and have been doing it for a while, are easy to identify. Blek le Rat, the grand-daddy of street art, is known as the ‘father of stencil graffiti” and is said to have paved the way for Bansky. Miss Tic’s sprayed urban poetry and seductive figures have been a feature in Parisian streets since 1985. Nemo’s signature “man in black” silhouettes first appeared in the 90s as have Space Invader’s tiled mosaics of the pixelated 1980s video game. Space Invader recently posted his 1000th mosaic, which I have no problem believing since I feel like I’ve seen dozens of them just in my neighbourhood of le marais recently…
A newcomer I discovered on my last trip to Paris was Clet Abraham. A French expatriate who currently resides in Florence, Italy, Clet has been humourously altering street signs in European cities for a few years now. While the funny removable stickers give smiles to passers-by, they do not seem to amuse the authorities, and he has been fined quite a few times…
These four pieces by Clet Abraham could be found at the intersection of rue rambuteau and rue du temple
I noticed his street signs randomly throughout the city but loved these four, at the four corners of the intersection of rue rambuteau and rue du temple in le Marais. I think they’re quite clever actually 😉 Make sure you look at street signs he next time you’re in Paris. Art is everywhere in the city of light, including on signalization…
Outside of l’Ecole des Beaux Arts in the 6eme arrondissement – bonus: cool piece by Monsieur le Chat in the background!
Similar signs caused quite a stir in Catholic Rome…
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