Christian Guémy, also known as C215 is a Parisian street artist focused
on stencil graffiti. Born in 1973, C215 started spray painting i
...n 2005 and is today one of the finest, and most productive stencil artists on the street art scene.
His striking portraits of local people, children and especially his
daughter Nina are expressive and distinctive in style. With his subjects
always portrayed as proud and dignified, his images communicate on an
universal level and draw attention to those that society has forgotten
about. Although C215 has been writing and publishing poetry separately,
the artist never adds text to his stencils, in order to give the viewer
the full possibility of the interpretation. In his choice of
backgrounds, layers of random, yet well selected found objects speak of
passing time, with an outcome that is both, aesthetical and meaningful.
His elaborate stencils- if outside a gallery- appear in the streets of
various cities all over the globe, such as New Delhi, London, Istanbul,
Fes, Rome, Barcelona, and Paris.
Lighting up the urban spaces they
decorate, every stencil has a reason to exist in its specific, well
thought of place and all his pieces are hand cut and sprayed originals
with a mix of found objects.
C215's favourite topic is
portraits, as faces have an universal message that everybody, no matter
who, will understand and be moved by. But "In the end, behind the
portraits, the question is always freedom and dignity in the face of a
capitalist daily life system."
