Pimax

PIMAX is a major artist on the Paris Street-Art scene, where his work is known and recognised by graffiti aficionados and fans alike. His work is now recognised by international galleries for his graffiti skills and his talent as a visual artist. PIMAX‘s work is characterised by the way he turns objects upside down, adding a pop, dynamic and colourful touch. But what he loves most of all is painting in the streets with his acolytes DRAN, WUZ, KROSS, SAN, CRANIO & MG LA BOMBA.

Born in 1975, PIMAX is a French artist who has been painting since he was 13. He occupies a special place in the world of Street-Art because he plays with the codes of contemporary art and revisits, through his paintings, stencils and sculptures, themes that he draws on the collective memory of those who lived through the 80s and 90s.

His work is influenced by art history, with a particular affection for the surrealists (Magritte, Picasso) and the impressionists (Monet, Renoir). He also has fun hijacking everyday objects, such as toys (Playmobil, Rubik’s cube), or advertising icons, by hijacking logos. Anything that makes sense in the collective memory becomes a potential subject for PIMAX.

Through his work emerges a scathing critique of consumer society, highlighting a certain chaos. He recycles all kinds of mediums for his paintings, including metal plates, wooden panels and road signs. He creates a colourful PoP universe in which he lives and works, surrounded by his whimsical creations, but never forgetting the world in which he lives.

In Paris, where he lives, he decorates the streets with his stencils and his ephemeral paintings with his characters NOURF NOURF but also GOLDOFUCK.
Over the last few years, PIMAX has been busy developing a character from his personal life, the emotional memory of his dog who died too soon and for whom the artist likes to say that he used to communicate by saying “Nourf Nourf”. Nourf Nourf, the red urban dog, was born out of this absence.

Nourf Nourf is an allegory of urban man, growing up and evolving in the grey, concrete city. To free himself, he builds an ideal world in his own image: the abstract fonts used pay homage to and make references to the Impressionists, the blue codifies the sky, the green the grass, the red the poppies, the yellow the sun and the black evokes Van Gogh’s crows.

This imaginary world is that of the lmpressionnourfs. PIMAX brings his red dog to life in paintings whose themes are the hallmark of his work, like a common thread in the artist’s reflection and criticism of the society around him.

Nourf Nourf is steeped in city culture, from which he borrows his accessories, essential to his wonderful world and his escape: there’s the 90s cassette player (PIMAX was also a DJ), the skateboard (which suggests movement) and the spray paint cans (which represent pictorial art) that he uses throughout his adventures to be in harmony with the nature that he misses so much.

To rebuild his world, the major arts are represented as the only means of freeing himself from social, political and economic constraints.

Through this allegory, Nourf Nourf can sometimes be seen as the avatar of PIMAX, who transcribes the emotions of human life through the features of his character.