André: Solo

Over the course of nearly four decades, European artist ANDRÉ (born in Sweden and raise in France from Portuguese parents) has established a singular pictorial style. Art was the first way André Saraiva, at a very young age chose to express himself and put a mark on the world. Tagging his name on the neighborhood’s walls was an urgent declaration of his existence. Then, he refined his style and found his iconic signature: the Mr A. figure. As such he was one of the first artists in the 80s to use this kind of logotype as his signature. He became identified with his iconic, cartoonish character: a round-headed figure with long limbs and a circle and a cross for eyes—a subject that recurred in Saraiva’s early canvas paintings.An international carreerQuickly he went beyond the graffiti ways in order to share his vision of the contemporary world. In the 2000s, Saraiva began a performative project called “Love Graffiti” in which he would spray paint the name of someone’s lover at an address of his or her choosing. His later works continued to employ line, text, and clean-edged geometry. In 2004, he exhibits at the Parco Museum in Tokyo and in 2006 takes part in the “La Force de l’Art” show in Grand Palais in Paris. In his conceptual series "Dream Concerts" he pastes fake concerts posters, presenting them in museums such as the MoCA LA . In 2009, he is part of the “Vraoum” show at the Maison Rouge Foundation. In 2012, he created a large-scale installation titled “Andrépolis”, resembling a city based on Paris and New York in miniature scale with neon lighting. In 2014, he is also shown by the Museum Frieder Burda inBaden-Baden, Germany.