Artof Popof

Third Floor / Metal doorway – wall – window /Glycero paints / 2012

« “During the “Eté du Canal” summer festival, I spent every weekend working on the building. I had nothing left to do on the other façade – and this time I wanted to do something really big, and empty my remaining paint pots. The woman with her face integrated into a vinyl record is a friend of mine, someone whose face I’ve already painted this way several times – this time, the challenge was to do it over four floors. Also, at that time I was listening a great deal to a Sam Cooke song called “A Change Is Gonna Come”, which really seemed to me to go perfectly with the building. I printed out a photo of the façade, then traced my drawing onto it as a guide – then I got to work.”

Artof Popof

Born in the Soviet Union in 1975, Artof Popof is an urban painter whose artistic endeavours are split between the brush and the aerosol can. His active involvement in the nascent French graffiti movement dates back to 1989. He collaborated on large-scale frescoes on the walls of Paris, New York and even Delhi, while simultaneously working hard to acquire the basics of classical painting at the École des Beaux-Arts, which had just admitted him. Popof maintained strong ties with his country of origin, developing and plying his trade at the point where the two cultures intermingle. Combining tags, portraits, architecture, text and textures, a strong vision of life emerges, and of city life in particular.

Other works in the buidling