NASTY: L'Amour du risque

 

The co-owner of the gallery Nicolas Chenus has followed and supported Nasty’s work since the 1990s, notably through all his publications dedicated to graffiti. In 1994, he published the artist’s very first interview in the pages of his fanzine Time Bomb. Nasty’s work would later continue to appear in Innercity (founded by Nicolas in 2005) and then in Graffiti Art (founded by Nicolas in 2008). In 2012, Nicolas Chenus curated the exhibition Made in the City, presented in a Parisian gallery just months before opening his own space (Galerie Openspace, now CHENUS LONGHI). The exhibition L’Amour du risque marks a new chapter in this shared trajectory.

For Nasty, graffiti is the subject. The metro is its core. Train cars, doors, signage plates, metro maps: an entire vocabulary drawn from Parisian infrastructure runs through his work. The metro is not a backdrop, but a living system — an everyday space where graffiti circulates, rolls and spreads. In his work, Paris emerges as one of the historic territories of this culture.

The exhibition reveals several new series across different media. The metro sign appears as a central and symbolic element, revisited for the occasion. The aerosol spray can, the ultimate symbol of the practice, also holds an important place, notably through resin inclusions where the tool becomes the subject and appears suspended in air and time. Frozen, as if halted mid-gesture, it evokes the immediacy and tension inherent to graffiti.

For nearly forty years, Nasty has painted tirelessly. A master of color and flow, he has developed a singular graffiti aesthetic born from a synthesis between the founding codes of the New York subway and his own formal research. Between passion and illegality, Nasty is one of the very few artists to have maintained an uninterrupted, active practice since his beginnings — in the street, the metro and urban space, as well as in festivals. His visibility has steadily grown, with a strong presence in galleries, museums and institutional venues.

As the urban art movement — now over sixty years old — undergoes increasing institutional recognition and sees its pioneering figures enter major public collections, Nasty stands as one of the major and historical figures of the French scene and an essential reference for any urban art collection.

 

Opening reception on March 12th at 6:30 pm

Galerie Chenus Longhi - 116, bd Richard Lenoir, Paris 11e