C215 (FR)
Christian Guemy is a Parisian artist who is as busy as he is humble. Though he has been hailed as “France's Banksy”, it is a title he feels he has done nothing to warrant. His reasons for painting are purely personal with little political motivation, he paints because he is simply a creative person and enjoys the process. His daughter, Nina, is often the subject of his works and he has admitted occasionally that he paints for her – because she will love them for life and continue to be proud of her father.
C215 has been creating art for well over 20 years, making his first stencil in 2006. He is highly trained with 2 Masters degrees in Art and Art History; He enjoys putting his years of studying and weeks of research and efforts into effect in a stencil applied in merely minutes.
He often focuses his work on the portraits of the forgotten such as beggars, homeless, elderly or refugees. His reasons for this, as he states, is that he refuses to forget those who have been forgotten. He also is interested in making art for those who live in the streets – street art is almost never targeted for those living under its facade. The allure of this also lies in its universal message. As he is well known as being a heavily traveled artist with works in most major cities across the globe, it is important that his work also be understood. His vibrant colors and detailed layers of portraiture are instantly recognisable no matter where they are placed, in a back-alley in Morocco or an unauthorized self-portrait in front of the National Portrait Gallery in London.
