SPEEDY GRAPHITO

SG produces art. As prolific as he is inventive, SG uses all forms of expression – painting, sculpture, installation, photography and video – to create, through his work and over time, a universal language imbued with the spirit of the times. Organised by theme, his exhibitions follow one another, offering ever new and surprising worlds. Constantly evolving and reinventing himself, his trademark is a joyful and profound art, often in bright colours, in which he playfully and ironically challenges our systems of perception. In this approach, he does not hesitate to appropriate and subvert the imagery of popular culture, superheroes and even brands, thus carrying out an almost systematic decoding of our collective unconscious. He then questions the norms and dictates of our Western cultural identity, superimposing a more poetic dimension on the reality of our society.

The ‘Speedy imagery’ includes his little red imps (sold on postcards) and his favourite character, the famous Lapinture. Lapinture is everywhere and everyone wants Lapinture. Speedy Graphito explores all media, and his works take on different forms. While painting remains his favourite medium, he also practises and explores other dimensions of art such as sculpture, photography, video art and digital art (Welcome to Venus, 2000).

When SG uses a precise personal imaginary dictionary, and this is tangibly linked to art history, it is in fact when he is most inclined to provide the keys to understanding it. Here, anyone who wishes to do so will find a good reason to pursue a more personal quest. The themes of childhood and death, which have always been prominent, give the works a more autobiographical character, inspired by his travels and inner journeys. All of them are an invitation to travel and awakening. The work as a whole is that of a ferryman, marked by the dreamlike imprint of a true iconoclast.

Equally at ease in public pictorial performances as in the privacy of his studio, SG devotes himself body and soul to his passion. In the urgency of passing time, he acts in ‘survival’ mode. SG is a popular artist. It was the commission for the poster for ‘La Ruée vers l'Art’ in 1985 by the Ministry of Culture that immediately brought him widespread recognition and public notoriety. This was followed by the animation of the La Défense towers for JM Jarre's concert, the exterior graphic identity of the Halle Saint Pierre, the creation of the logo for the Altaïr space mission, the design of which is still somewhere in intergalactic space, the painting of the Europodyssée barge, which travels from Paris to Moscow via the canals, the sails of a catamaran for a solo Atlantic crossing, and the walls of Paris along the Parcours de la Bièvre...

A FEW KEY POINTS:

He was only fourteen when he realised that his path would be that of art. He studied at the École de la Rue Madame from 1975 to 1980, spending all his free time painting and, at the same time, designing and creating theatre sets for five years.

When Olivier Rizzo graduated from the École d'Art Estienne in Paris in 1983, he was twenty-two years old. It was during this period that he created his first stencils in the street with the group X Moulinex and began painting under the name Speedy Graphito.

PAST EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

• 2013: Maison Triolet-Aragon, Moulin de Villeneuve, Saint Arnoult-en-Yvelines

• 2014: Hypnotic, Fabien Castanier Gallery, Miami, United States

• 2015: Artificial Paradise, Fabien Castanier Gallery, Los Angeles, United States

• 2016: Home Street Home, Galerie Huberty Breyne, Brussels, Belgium

• 2017: Un Monde de Rêves, Galerie Polaris, Paris

• 2018: Speedy Graphito au Palais du Tau, Palais du Tau, Reims

• 2019: L’Art dans la peau, Kolly Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland

• 2020: Speedy Graphito vu par Speedy Graphito, Galerie Polaris, Paris, France

• 2021-2022: Femmes, Galerie Barthélémy Bouscayrol, Biarritz, France — From 16 July to 3 September 2022