SKEPA - Le don Juan

Unique artwork – 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 Beaux-Arts de Lyon and cofounder of the BAFO movement.
I started with graffiti in the early 1990s, with Jone Hopper. That’s where I come from. I learned there to take my place, to seek my style and to express myself without waiting for anyone to give me permission. More than thirty years later, it still is a part of me.
Since then, my painting has changed. I tried, learned, failed, started again. What I do today comes from all those years, from the encounters, from the work and from what I live. I didn’t get here overnight, and I continue to search.
The tools change, the ways of creating as well. We live with the means of our time and we won’t turn back. But that does not excuse anyone from being honest about what they do. For me, signing a work is owning it. It’s respecting the people who look at it and not telling them a story that isn’t theirs.
We are served a lot of discourse, a lot of images, a lot of things we should believe without asking questions. That makes me even more want to defend a place for painting, for the freedom to do and to think. A place where one can still offer something that matters 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 a time that lacks it. I want to continue building something in this sense, with my history, my convictions and the work that remains to be done.

Website: skepa.fr
Instagram: @skepa_gallery