Background
Speedy Graphito was born in 1961, in Paris, France.
School of Art Estienne in Paris
Speedy Graphito was born in 1961, in Paris, France.
Olivier Rizzo graduated with honors from the School of Art Estienne in Paris in 1983, receiving his formal education through a seven-year arts program.
In 1984, Olivier Rizzo started signing his works as Speedy Graphito. His reputation has been growing steadily since the early-1980s, leaving a mark on a generation of artists and contemporary art. The artist who never ceases to explore all media in order to create an ongoing dialogue between the past, present, and future of art, began his artistic career as a member of the short-lived art collective X–Moulinex in 1983 creating dynamic paintings and street murals using spray paint and stencils. Over the years he has developed his own inimitable style that explores the tragedies of consumer seduction while referencing pop culture icons and street art influences.
Particularly inspired by the iconography of animated characters from movies and television, his original and forceful art style incorporates schematic and charismatic subjects, cartoons and manga as well as contemporary commercial brands, advertising logos, and pop culture imagery. Using all mediums – from paint brushes, sculpture, installations, spray paint, video and more – he plays on pop and media culture. Over the years, his art has been permanently evolving, always in harmony with his time, making pictorial languages, iconoclastic and satiric depiction of our society.
Speedy Graphito also draws inspiration from childhood memories. He investigates the world of cartoons, reinventing a selection of Disney characters. As a case, in his piece "Stars in My Head", the artist transformed the protagonist of one of the greatest animated films of all time – Pinocchio, while "Temptation (Enhanced)" elements Disney’s Snow White captivated with the half-eaten logo of Macintosh Apple, making a sagacious and sarcastic message about purchaser enchantment.
Speedy Graphito has participated in numerous individual and collective exhibitions throughout the world. Some of his solo shows were held at Galerie Polaris in Paris; Institut Français in Naples; Galerie Punto in Valencia; Galerie Anne Vignial in Paris; Art Partner Galerie in Bruxelles; Opera Gallery in Londres; New Square Gallery in Lille, France; and Castanier Gallery in Miami, among others.
His work has been included in group shows at Galerie Mathgot in Paris, France; Institut Français in Prague, Czech Republic; Art Partner Galerie in Bruxelles, Belgium; Galerie Kahn in Strasbourg, France; Galerie Punto in Madrid, Spain, to name a few. His art can also be found in many notable collections. He currently lives and works in Paris, France and Los Angeles, United States.
Speedy Graphito is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential figures in the French Street Art movement. His oeuvre is striking, vigorous, and controversial – and while the most of his work is paint-based, he is also regarded for his work in other media including sculpture, installations, video, and photography.
Favela - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (photo Natacha Giler)
Ecole Romain Rollan - Les Lilas, France
Plazza Beaubourg, Paris 4 (photo Philippe Bonan)
Paris XV
Untitled (Speedy Graphito, Paris)
Rue des 5 diamants, Paris XIII
Paris XIII
Parc des Bruyères - Les Lilas, France
Rue du fer à moulin - Paris XIII
Ambassade de France, Tokyo (photo Arièle Schweps)
Ecole Romain Rollan - Les Lilas, France
Place Océane, Le Havre
Place Océane, Le Havre
Macae, Brazil
Ecole Romain Rollan - Les Lilas, France
163 rue des Pyrennées, Paris XX
Speedy's art presents a universe that is always new and surprising. In a constant evolution and reinvent itself, his art is deep and full of joy, his colors are vivid, shaking in a playful and ironic way our systems of perception. In this approach, he does not hesitate to take ownership of popular culture images, superheroes, or even brands, thus achieving a quasi-systematic decyphering of the collective subconscious. He declines through his questioning the standards and the norms of the western cultural identity, laying a more poetic dimension on the reality of the society.
In 1983 Speedy joined the artistic collective X-Moulinex but left it the following year.
