ADEK is artist who started out doing graffiti. He has created a subversive universe epitomized by a colorful and generous aesthetic mixing both street art and pop art. His nickname (short for « adequate ») and his style have been formed on the walls of Paris for several years, as his spontaneous passion for graff cohabited with DJing activities and music production. In 2009, he decided to devote himself exclusively to painting. He chose to work in studio and on canvases which enabled him to deeply display a wide imagery that combines urban culture, pop icons and references to modern and contemporary art – including Matisse’s work as a colorist, Vasarely’s geometric rigor or Agam’s cinetic art.

 

Using a mixed technique (spray, acrylic and oil painting), ADEK explores an aesthetic which is attractive, accessible and inhabited altogether, in the tradition of Keith Haring. Vibrant colors arise from a black background to animate with intensity the characters or the messages populating his paintings. Through a special process that he developed himself, his colors escape into a fluorescence that varies with exposure to light, attractive in daylight, more intriguing as the darkness grows, irradiating under neon lighting.

 

Expert of paradox and polysemy, ADEK likes to infuse a second, strange and fascinating soul, into his paintings. The requirement of this painting technique highlights a subversive discourse, exposing the pretenses and easy short cuts. By investing the world of great popular figures (superheroes, cartoons, Hollywood characters …) or of overused formulas, codes and symbols are distilled by ADEK to attract the viewer who is first caught by the bright colors and familiar faces, and then left to a playful and challenging mystery. Alter ego of the artist projected onto canvas, Mickey Mouse is a recurring figure in ADEK’s world. His reassuring curves, big ears and permanent grin reveal faults, vices and sufferings: it then becomes an allegory of the human condition faced with the failings of its time. Thwarting the obvious, deconstructing the contemporary mythologies ADEK’s work demands attention and taming. Beyond that sharp outlook on society, implicitly appears a meditation on the origins, the journey and the position of an artist whose purpose never encroaches upon the quest for formal beauty, yet relies on it.

Born in 1976 in Aix-en-Provence, ADEK lives and works in Paris & U.S.A.