It is Friday and that means Freeway Editions ends the week with our Artist of the Week! Today we are taking a look at more work by anonymous street artist Zevs.
From his bio:
Zevs (born 1977) is an anonymous French street artist, best known for his trademark "liquidation" technique. He is named after a regional train, Zeus, that almost ran him over one day he was down in the metro. He was an early and influential graffiti artist and active as a tagger in Paris in the 1990s. Working with other French artists in the second half of the 1990s like Andre and Invader, Zevs has been among the prominent figures that pioneered the French street art scene.
The end of the 90’s he was known for his philosphical drawings of “Electric Shadows” in Paris. Later he 'bombed' models on the billboards between the eyes. Though his interventions have been very popular, it has been discussed in France whether it is vandalism or art. Since the mid-00s Zevs has become famous for his work with dripping brand logos. A beautiful illusion is created by the dripping paint from the logos, giving them an appearance of dissolving. An creating a simple but powerful dialogue about corporations and their influence on society. His Liquidated Logos reference fashion, financial, and pop cultural brands these logos reconstructions comment on their omnipresence but impermanency within today’s fast paced culture.
Zevs has been exhibited in galleries and museum worldwide including his first major survey exhibition at the classical art museum the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Freeway Editions has talked about his liquidated apple logo featured in the online gallery. But we would like to share some of his work in situ, on the streets of Europe and the US.
Zevs has a dark sense of humor which comes through in his work. However he successfully communicates his ideas about culture in a way that serves as comic relief yet also addresses serious issues. The true struggle in the life of a street artist is to find that balance, getting people to pay attention, communicating a message but also providing an outlet for ideas. Zevs has certainly found that balance.