SKEPA - Clown aux poissons rouges

Tribute to Bernard Buffet

Unique work – Certificate of authenticity provided.
Original work on linen canvas, wooden stretcher with keys.

I am Guillaume Skepa, painter and sculptor, born in 1978, graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and co-founder of the BAFO movement.
I started with graffiti in the early 1990s, with Jone Hopper. That’s where I come from. There I learned to claim my place, to search for my style, and to express myself without waiting for anyone to give me permission. More than thirty years later, it’s still a part of me.
Since then, my painting has changed. I’ve tried, learned, failed, and started again. What I do today comes from all those years, from encounters, from work and from what I live. I didn’t get here overnight, and I continue to search.
Tools change, as do ways of creating. We live with the means of our time and we won’t go back. But that does not excuse anyone from being honest about what they do. For me, signing a work means owning it. It’s respecting the people who look at it and not telling them a story that isn’t theirs.
We’re served a lot of rhetoric, a lot of images, a lot of things to believe in without asking questions. That makes me want even more to defend a place for painting, for the freedom to make and to think. A place where one can still offer something meaningful to oneself and share it with others.
I believe that we, artists and visual artists, have a role to play in this. To inspire, to provoke a reaction, to bring a bit of hope in an era that lacks it. I want to continue building something in this direction, with my story, my convictions, and the work that remains to be done.

Website: skepa.fr
Instagram: @skepa_gallery