ARTIST
Invader
France
The concept of invading a space was totally innovative when street art first emerged. Invader (b. 1969) graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He usually works incognito at night and often uses a mask, as he wants to stay anonymous. He defines himself as UFA, Unidentified Free Artist. The inspiration for his space-ship mosaics came from the Space Invaders arcade game released in 1978. The artist makes use of the unique aesthetic of the 8-bit graphics, reproduced so that each tile represents one pixel. Invader called his characters Space Invaders and transferred the iconic video game aesthetic onto the streets. In the spirit of spreading his tag everywhere in graffiti, Invader tries everything to ‘invade’ as many cities in the world as possible.
In 2015 his Space2 mosaic was installed on board the International Space Station (ISS), which means that Invader is probably the first visual artist whose work has gone into outer space. His works have also been exhibited occasionally in art institutions and galleries such as the HOCA Foundation in Hong Kong in 2015 or at Over The Influence in Los Angeles in 2018.
