Jef Aérosol is a French stencil graffiti

Stencil graffiti

Stencil graffiti makes use of a paper, cardboard, or other media to create an image or text that is easily reproducible. The desired design is cut out of the selected medium and then the image is transferred to a surface through the use of spray paint or roll-on paint.The process of stenciling...

 artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

. He has been one of the main urban art

Urban art

Urban art is a style of art that relates to cities and city life often done by artists who live in or have a passion for city life...

 proponents in France since 1982. He was born in Nantes

Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....

. He belongs to the very first street art

Street art

Street art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, "in the streets" — though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives...

 pioneers of the early 80s like Blek le Rat

Blek le Rat

Blek le Rat, born Xavier Prou in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris in 1952, was one of the first graffiti artists in Paris, and has been described as the “Father of Stencil Graffiti” .-Early career and Influence:...

, Miss.Tic, Jérôme Mesnager, Speedy Graphito.

He spray

Spray

Spray can refer to:* Spray ** Aerosol spray** Blood spray** Road/tire spray, kicked up from a vehicle tire** Snow spray, a spray that creates artificial snow fall...

 painted his first stencil

Stencil

A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to...

 in 1982, in Tours

Tours

Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...

. He's been living in Lille

Lille

Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...

 since 1984.

He has left his mark on the walls of many cities: Paris, London, Lisbon, Venice, Rome, Amsterdam, Chicago, New-York, Brussels, Beijing, etc. (and lots of different places in France, of course)

His work can be seen in many group and solo shows, festivals, art fairs, auction sales and international events. Jef Aérosol is presented by several galleries in France and abroad. He made the cover and gave its name to the first book ever published about street stencils: "Vite Fait, Bien Fait" (éditions Alternatives / Agnès B, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, 1986)

He released a book in 2007 : "VIP Very Important Pochoirs" (éditions Alternatives, Paris) and some other books and catalogues too.

External links

• official website : http://www.jefaerosol.com
• Myspace : http://www.myspace.com/jefaerosol
• flickr Jef aérosol : http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefaerosol
• Jef Aérosol pool / group : http://www.flickr.com/groups/jefaerosol
• forum : http://www.jefaerosol.co.uk
• link to "Vikidia" (children's wikipedia) about Jef Aérosol : http://fr.vikidia.org/index.php/Jef_A%C3%A9rosol
• Jef Aérosol on hub_01: http://www.hub01.org/items/show/228