Nasty French, b. 1974

From the very beginning, Nasty has demonstrated the audacity of youth and a taste for risk that have never left him. He began graffiti in Paris at the age of 13, in the late 1980s, and very early on claimed the metro as a space for play, freedom, and self-assertion. A constrained, closely monitored environment, yet one deeply embedded in everyday life, which would become the core of his work.

A historical figure of French graffiti, Nasty has developed an intimate relationship with the Paris metro—its history, its uses, and its objects. Trains, platforms, doors, signage plates, metro maps: all are supports that form a recognizable vocabulary, directly drawn from the city. These elements, collected or reinterpreted, move between public space, the studio, and the exhibition, extending a gesture born in the street.

The aerosol spray can also occupies a central place in this practice. An essential tool of graffiti, it becomes both subject and, at times, a support in its own right. Some cans are compressed and then painted, diverted from their original function in a process that echoes the strategies of appropriation and transformation developed by the artists of Nouveau Réalisme. Others are painted and then encapsulated, frozen for eternity, preserving the trace of a gesture that is, by nature, ephemeral.

Recognized very early on by galleries, Nasty has been exhibiting since 1992, engaging in a lasting dialogue between illegal practices and institutional recognition. His work has been shown in France and internationally, and is held in numerous public and private collections. In 2011, he reconstructed a metro station for the first time within a Parisian gallery, affirming the coherence of a body of work deeply rooted in the city and its uses.

Alongside his artistic practice, Nasty worked for many years as an advertising copywriter. It is therefore natural that collaborations with brands—from Monoprix to La Maison du Chocolat, from Azzaro to Leblon Delienne—have become part of the continuity of his work, extending his visual vocabulary onto everyday objects and familiar supports.

Still active in the urban environment, Nasty pursues a practice that unfolds between in situ interventions, studio work, and exhibition. In 2024–25, the urban art center Fluctuart devoted an exhibition to his work. As he approaches forty years of practice, his work bears witness to a sustained commitment over time, between the street, the metro, and the exhibition space.

 

2026 - L’Amour du risque, Galerie CHENUS LONGHI, Paris (FR)

2025 - Textures et déchirures, At Down, Montpellier (FR)

2023-2024 - NASTY – Faits & méfaits. Retrospective 1988–2023, Fluctuart – Urban Art Center, Paris (FR)

2023 - Solo exhibition, Art Jingle Contemporary, Honfleur (FR)

2022 - Œuvres sur béton, Galerie Brugier-Rigail, Paris (FR)

2020 - Between the Lines, Kolly Gallery, Zurich (CH)

2019 - Underground Fragments / Iconic Surfaces, Kolly Gallery, Zurich (CH)

2019 - Instagraf, La Condition Publique, Roubaix (FR)

2018 - Solo exhibition, Galerie At-Down, Montpellier (FR)

2017 - Disorder, Galerie Brugier-Rigail, Paris (FR)

2016 - Solo exhibition, Kolly Gallery, Zurich (CH)

2016 - Solo exhibition, Galerie Bobino-Langlais, La Baule (FR)

2015 - Solo exhibition, Galerie At-Down, Montpellier (FR)

2014 - Solo exhibition, Galerie Brugier-Rigail, Paris (FR)

2012 - Made in the City, Galerie Celal, Paris (FR)

2011 - Solo exhibition, Galerie Hélène Bailly, Paris (FR)

2010 - Solo exhibition, Galerie Bailly Contemporain, Paris (FR)

2000 - Solo exhibition, Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris (FR)

1998 - Solo exhibition, Triiad Shop, Paris (FR)

 

2024 - From the Street to the Gallery, Galerie Brugier-Rigail, Paris (FR)

2024 - Les Maîtres du Street Art, Galerie Brugier-Rigail, Paris (FR)

2023 - Group exhibition (with Mist, Tanc), Galerie At-Down, Montpellier (FR)

2019 - L’Été Street Art, Chapelle Sainte-Anne / Galerie Bobino-Langlais, La Baule (FR)

2017 - Street Generations, La Condition Publique, Roubaix (FR)

2016 - Belle Ville, Guerlain (with Blek le Rat, Invader, JonOne, L’Atlas), Paris (FR)

2015 - 50 years of Urban Art in Paris, Crédit Municipal de Paris (FR)

2015 - Le Pressionnisme. Graffiti on Canvas, Pinacothèque de Paris (FR)

2013 - Pierresvives 3P2A, Musée Pierresvives (with Invader, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Supakitch, Koralie), Montpellier (FR)

2013 - French Invasion, Fabien Castanier Gallery (with JonOne, Tilt, Speedy Graphito), Los Angeles (US)

2009 - Tag au Grand Palais, Grand Palais, Paris (FR)

2008 - Tagger n’est pas jouer, Galerie Hélène Bailly, Paris (FR)

1992 - Urban Art, Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris (FR)