Speedy Graphito: BEYOND THE FUTURE

WYNWOOD | On View January 13 - February 9, 2019

Fabien Castanier Gallery is excited to present our first solo exhibition of 2019, Beyond the Future, for French artist, Speedy Graphito. The show is held in our Wynwood gallery location from January 13 through February 9, with an opening reception brunch with the artist on Sunday Jan 13^th.

Beyond the Future is Speedy Graphito’s first step in his new evolution. Since the 1980s, the artist has changed and adapted with the times, experimenting with new mediums and styles in a way that reflected upon his personal view of the world and the changing cultural landscape. This exhibition sees Speedy explore a new frontier that evokes both a sense of nostalgia and breeds the impetus to gaze upon the future.

The paintings he presents for this show derive an aesthetic traced back to the artist’s roots in the 1980s, as his “lapinture” character, boldly rendered use of monochromatic color, and reinvigorated texture pervade his new compositions. These pieces are a return to a memory as he explores the relationship of nature to an everchanging world. Leading up to this body of work, Speedy has focused on the influences of pop culture, technology, and art historical figures on the contemporary global consciousness. Now, he seeks to present a vision into the future – a new realm in which the natural envelopes the surreal, weaving a narrative that is at once mysterious, daunting, and untamed, an insight into today’s emergent social identity.

Speedy Graphito (b. 1961) is a precursor to the avant-garde and recognized as one of the pioneers of the French “Street Art” movement (Urban Contemporary Art). Today, Speedy Graphito is internationally considered one of the major figures of his generation. Since the early 1980s, just after the free-figuration movement, the collective memory and walls of Paris were permeated with the coloring and snappy graphics of Speedy Graphito’s “Style Graphito.” Prolific and inventive, Speedy uses all forms of expression – painting, sculpture, installation, video and photography, to express his unique perspective as a contemporary iconoclast.