Antonin Katre French, b. 1977

Biography
Antonin Katre

Antonin Katre occupies a singular place within the French post-graffiti scene. Emerging from the Parisian graffiti movement of the 1990s, he has developed a practice rooted in the exploration of abandoned places, photography, painting and installation. From his early research on the Molitor swimming pool to his works using plans mounted on aluminium and wood, as well as installations incorporating neon lights, his work questions the memory of architectures in transition and the ways in which the graffiti gesture can continue to inhabit contemporary space.

Born in Paris in 1977, Antonin Katre lives and works in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Emerging from the Parisian graffiti scene, which he joined in the early 1990s, he developed an early and close relationship with the city, its margins and its abandoned spaces. A graduate in visual arts from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, he devoted his 2003 master’s thesis to the Molitor swimming pool, an emblematic site of disused urban architecture, then occupied by numerous artists from the graffiti scene.

Since the early 2000s, Katre has built a practice at the crossroads of photography, painting, screen printing, neon and installation. His explorations of industrial wastelands and buildings in transition form the starting point for works in which the documentary image becomes a plastic material. Working from black-and-white photographs, he overlays lines, letters, colours and pictorial gestures, reactivating the memory of places through the energy of graffiti.

His work has gradually expanded to a wide range of supports and devices: brushed aluminium, wood, glass, mounted plans, industrial elements, neon lights and in situ installations. This diversity allows him to shift graffiti away from its original context and place it within a broader reflection on architecture, light, support and space. His work is therefore part of a post-graffiti approach, nourished by the experience of the street, urbex and places undergoing transformation.

Alongside his artistic practice, Katre published Hors du temps in 2005 and Hors du temps 2 in 2012, two books devoted to interventions by urban artists in abandoned places. He is also co-founder of the Toulouse-based association Faute O Graff, which initiated the Mister Freeze event. Finally, in 2025, Éditions El Viso published his first monograph, De l’Urbex au Post-Graffiti, retracing more than thirty years of research around the city, wastelands and the graffiti gesture.

——

solo exhibitions

2025 - En perspectives, Galerie Chenus Longhi, Paris (FR)
2024 - Temporalité, Galerie Wallworks, Paris (FR)
2023 - Mémoire vive, Galerie Wallworks, Hôtel Molitor, Paris (FR)
2021 - Entropik Perspectives, Galerie Very Yes, Saint-Pierre, La Réunion (FR)

2019 - Lignes urbaines, Galerie Bonio, Langlais, La Baule (FR)
2019 - Point de fuite, Galerie Wallworks, Paris (FR)
2018 - Mémoires urbaines, Fondation Montresso, Marrakech (MA)
2016 - Ruines & Sens, Galerie Wallworks, Paris (FR)
2012 - Terrain Vague, Galerie Celal, Paris (FR)
2011 - Katre, Centre Aragon Triolet, Orly (FR)

 

group EXHIBITIONS

2025 - Bien Urbain, Villa Tschaen, Colmar (FR)
2024 - Now Spraying, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manille (PH)
2024 - Le Comœdia, Brest (FR)
2023 - Mister Freeze, Toulouse (FR)
2021 - Do Show Urban State, Galerie Joël Knafo, Paris (FR)
2020 - Polyphonissima, Galerie Joël Knafo, Paris (FR)
2019 - Urban Art Biennale, Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen (DE)
2019 - Conquête Urbaine, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Calais (FR)
2018 - Entré dans les mœurs, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris (FR) 2017 - Manifesto Urbain, La Lune en Parachute, Épinal (FR)
2016 - Material Layers, Galerie Nicolas-Xavier Montpelliér, Paris (FR)
2015 - Zepha & Katre, Galerie Korn, Stockholm (SE)
2015 - Morceaux de rue, Galerie Wallworks, Paris (FR)
2014 - Look Through, Bund 18 / Nyse Gallery, Shanghai (CN)

 

INSTALLATIONS and MURALS

2025 - Installation lumineuse, La Défense, Paris (FR) 2025 - Façade, Lens (FR)

2024 - Installation lumineuse, Les Extatiques, La Défense, Paris (FR)

2024 - Installation lumineuse, Poésie Urbaine, Grasse (FR)
2023 - Façade, La Pyramide, Abidjan (CI)
2023 - Façade lumineuse, Mumbai (IN)

2023 - Installation lumineuse, Hôtel Molitor, Paris (FR)

2022 - Installation, Bernay, Normandie (FR)
2022 - Installation lumineuse, Völklingen (DE)
2022 - Façade lumineuse, Stockholm (SE)

2021 - Installation lumineuse, L’Essentiel, Paris (FR)
2020 - Installation lumineuse, Mister Freeze Festival, Montauban (FR)
2019 - Installation et fresque murale, La Baule (FR)
2019 - Installation lumineuse, Völklingen (DE)
2018 - Façade, Urban Art Fair, 3e édition, Paris (FR)
2018 - Installation lumineuse et fresques, La Conserverie, Marrakech (MA)
2017 - Installation lumineuse, Street Generation, La Condition Publique, Roubaix (FR)

2016 - Façade, Festival UP There, Porto (PT)
2016 - Fresque, Musée de La Poste, Paris (FR)
2015 - Fresque, Villette Street Festival, Halle de la Villette, Paris (FR)
2013 - Installation et façade, Tour 13, Paris (FR)

 

art RESIDENCiES 

2024 - Ambassade de France, Manille, 3 semaines (PH)
2021 - Galerie Very Yes, Saint-Pierre, La Réunion, 1 mois (FR)
2018 - Jardin Rouge, Fondation Montresso, Marrakech, 3 mois (MA)

2014 - Magda Danysz, Shanghai, 1 mois (CN)

Exhibitions