About the artwork
In this work, André Saraiva uses the iconic circular format of road signs to depict his famous Monsieur A character. The smiling face, the round eye and the cross-eye, the broad, mischievous smile make up an instantly recognizable figure, simplified to the extreme, and printed here in white on a bright red background, in a refined graphic style. The circle, which normally evokes an order or prohibition in urban signage, here becomes the frame for a cheerful, mischievous, almost childlike figure. The sign becomes an urban totem, a beacon of André Saraiva's style, as much as a nod to the history of graffiti, pop art and public art.
Expert opinion
With Street Sign, André Saraiva subverts the codes of urban authority with humor and tenderness.
About the artist
Born in 1971. Lives and works in Paris. French artist and entrepreneur André Saraiva is one of the pioneers of urban art. Discovering graffiti in 1989, he invented his famous Mr. A character, which became a veritable visual identity and made him famous. At a frenetic pace of around 20 tags a night, almost 150,000 Mr. A's have been drawn on all kinds of surfaces since the start of his career. It's a veritable invasion of the world by this cheerful, debonair little character, whose bulbous face is often topped by a top hat, and whose eyes - one round, the other covered by a cross - seem to wink at you. Perched on long, straight legs, Mr. A resembles his inventor: smiling, charming and mischievous. André goes beyond graffiti to share his vision of the contemporary world. In 2004, he was exhibited at the Parco Museum in Tokyo, and in 2006 took part in the "La Force de l'Art" exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris. In 2009, he took part in the "Vraoum" exhibition at the Maison Rouge in Paris. In 2014, he exhibited at the Frieder Burda Museum in Baden-Baden, Germany, and a retrospective was organized at the Museu do Design e da Moda in Lisbon. His work has been exhibited in museums and contemporary art galleries worldwide.
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