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Samuel François can’t settle for a monochromatic approach. His world is neither green nor blue nor
black; it is an explosion of colors that would put the most beautiful rainbow to shame. A jokester, his
work is like a supercharged cocktail; the artist’s shaker combines his adolescent memories and adult worries.
“When I graduated from art school in 2002, I didn’t really have many artistic referents. They
were mostly graffiti artists whose paths had led them from the street to the galleries. I’m thinking especially about Barry McGee.”
Several worlds come together in his work, from graffiti to the garish
and geometric style of the 1980s. The series of felt-pen drawings on paper, “We are not from the
ghetto”—featuring gangster poses, bandanas over mouths, caps worn sideways, hoods and paint-
splattered jackets—evokes the artist’s adolescent fantasies and memories from his natal Lorraine,
with a healthy dose of inspiration from American magazines and the first hip-hop videos shown on TV.
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