Futura x André: Chez Nous

“André x Futura : Chez Nous” is an exhibition born from the artists’ common desire to paint together, cross paths and share their worlds. André and Futura have in common the same virtuosity, a great vivacity and a perfect mastery when they have a spray can in their hand. Their signature styles are distinctive yet come from a common culture that made them legends, each in their own right.Sharing the same energy, they initiated together this four hands exhibition in which they present a series of unseen works where they answer each other and merge their gestures. Futura’s otherworldly characters, such as the Pointman, echo André’s Mr A. dancing figures, as if their pictorial alter ego were enjoying themselves as much as both artists did in this adventure.Futura (aka Lenny Mc Gurr)Futura is born in 1955 in New York. He started to paint on New York City's subway in the early 1970s. In the early 1980s he showed with Patti Astor at the Fun Gallery, along with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Hambleton and Kenny Scharf. Futura painted backdrops live on-stage for British punk rock band The Clash's 1981 European tour. In 1985, he was on the first meeting of the graffiti and urban art movement in France. Since then he is considered as one of the founding fathers of the Street Art movement. One of the most distinctive features of Futura's work is his abstract approach to graffiti art. While the primary focus, during the 1980s, of the majority of graffiti artists was lettering, Futura pioneered abstract street art, which has since become more popular. Conversely, his aerosol strokes are regarded as different from those of his peers, as they are as thin as the fine lines usually associated with the use of an airbrush. His museum exhibitions include “New York / New Wave” at PS1 (1981), Coming from the Subway at Groninger Museum (1992), Beautiful Losers (2004) and “Art in the Streets” at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2011) and the “Art from the Streets” at ArtScience Museum, Singapore (2018). André (aka André Saraiva)André is born in 1971 in Sweden from Portuguese parents who then moved to Paris, France, when André was 10. In the mid-1980s as the graffiti culture was starting in Europe he was one of the first artist to embrace the culture and developed his very one pictographic signature in the shape of a grinning figure: Mr. A. Since then he never stopped to pervasively invade the cities he travels to. From special commissions made in the Tokyo airport terminal in 2004, to his long lasting collaboration with the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and his participation to the “Art in the Streets” show, at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2011), a retrospective at the Museu do Design e da Moda in Lisbon (2014) and the “Art from the Streets” one in ArtScience Museum, Singapore (2018).