André (artist)
André (aka Monsieur André aka Monsieur A) born 1971 as André Saraiva, is a Swedish-Portuguese graffiti artist living in Paris (France). He DEFACES HERITAGE SITES paints a distinctive stick-figure character, usually with a top hat and an 'X' in place of one of the eyes. He started doing graffiti in 1985.[1]
Career
André gained notice in the late 1990s with Mr. A, a cartoonish character with a round head, a cross and a circle for his eyes, a big smile and very long legs, which he used to draw all over the streets of Paris. In 2013, he told The Talks that on average he has drawn 10 Mr. A's a day for almost 30 years and in total he has probably drawn Mr. An around 100,000 to 200,000 times.[2] He is part of the early Parisian graffiti scene along with Invader and Zevs, and he appears in Banksy street art movie, Exit Through the Gift Shop. His distinctive style, poetic and joyful, and his use of pink color, made him quickly stand out.
In the early 2000s, he developed the Love Graffiti series.
He appears in the documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop. His appearance was shot by Mr. Brainwash, the moniker of Paris-born, Los Angeles‒based filmmaker and street artist Thierry Guetta.
André's artistic career includes solo exhibitions at Air de Paris, The Hole, Circle Culture, and Half Gallery. He also participated in MoCA Los Angeles' Art in the Streets exhibition in 2011. The same year, his work was also on view at the Grand Palais, Paris and the 54th Venice Biennale.
During 2013 André Saraiva launched an art project named Dream Concerts. By putting up posters around the world with dream artist lineups at great venues he caught the publics attention. With the project Andrés goal was to play with fantasy and reality. Later on he held an exhibition in Stockholm called "Back to Sweden" with the artwork from Dream Concerts. In an interview with the Swedish artist Artan Mansouri he talks about receiving calls from Jay Z and Daft Punk over the confusion if the concerts really existed or not.[3]
Conviction for vandalism
On April 1, 2015, André was convicted and fined for vandalizing ancient rock formations in Joshua Tree National Park in California. André had posted photos of his vandalizations on Instagram.[4] Readers of Modern Hiker magazine aided the Forest Service in tracking down and identifying André's defacing of rocks in the park.[5]
Personal life
André was formerly married to French/American electro artist, Uffie.[6]
Further reading
- Reisser, Mirko; Peters, Gerrit; Zahlmann, Heiko, eds. (2002). Urban Discipline 2002: Graffiti-Art. Urban Discipline: Graffiti-Art (in English and German) 3 (1st ed.). Hamburg (Germany): getting-up. p. 118. ISBN 3-00-009421-0.
- Street Logos, Tristan Manco, Thames & Hudson, 2004, ISBN 0-500-28469-5
- GQ 10 essential
External links
- Modern Hiker
- monsieura.com
- Vimeo
- lovegraffiti.com
- The Hole Gallery
- Circle Culture Gallery
- Ekosystem Gallery
- Agent Art Director Management
References
- ↑ Reisser, Mirko; Peters, Gerrit; Zahlmann, Heiko, eds. (2002). Urban Discipline 2002: Graffiti-Art. Urban Discipline: Graffiti-Art (in English and German) 3 (1st ed.). Hamburg (Germany): getting-up. p. 118. ISBN 3-00-009421-0.
- ↑ "Interview with Andre Saraiva". The Talks.
- ↑ http://www.kingsizemagazine.se/intervjuer/intervju-andre-saraiva/
- ↑ Spiers, Katherine (April 15, 2015) "Artist "Mr. Andre" Pays Fine For Vandalizing Joshua Tree National Park." KCET. org. (Retrieved 4-16-2015.)
- ↑ Schreiner, Casey (February 27, 2015). "Is Mr. Andre tagging in Joshua Tree?". Modern Hiker.
- ↑ "Uffie Engaged to Monsieur Andre - The Whole Story".
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