C215, is the moniker of Christian Guémy, a French

street artist A street artist is a person who makes art in public places. Street artists include portrait artists, caricaturists, graffiti artists, muralists and people making crafts. Street artists can also refer to street performers such as musicians, acrob ...

hailing from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

who has been described as "France's answer to

Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigram ...

". C215 primarily uses stencils to produce his art. His first stencil work was put up in 2006, but he has been a graffiti artist for () over 20 years. His work consists mainly of close up portraits of people. C215's subjects are typically those such as

beggar Begging (also panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars may operate in public plac ...

homeless people Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

, refugees, street kids and the elderly. The rationale behind this choice of subject is to draw attention to those that society has forgotten about.

Cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s are another frequent subject of his work. C215 is a prolific street artist and has practiced his art in cities all over the world. His stencils may be seen in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Paris, Oslo, Colombo and different cities of

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

. In October 2014, C215 visited

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 wa ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

because of his interest in Caravaggio as well as 17th-century religious architecture. He produced various examples of street art on

post box A post box (British English; also written postbox; also known as pillar box), also known as a collection box, mailbox, letter box or drop box (American English) is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail inten ...

es within the city, but

MaltaPost MaltaPost p.l.c. is the postal service company in Malta. The public limited company took over the postal services previously carried out by Posta Limited, and started operating on 1 May 1998. History MaltaPost p.l.c. was registered with the Malt ...

removed the artworks after a few days. Various people have criticized MaltaPost for removing the artworks, including the mayor of Valletta Alexei Dingli. In addition to his street work, C215 also produces commercial artwork for galleries on wood and canvas. C215 has to date done a number of solo gallery shows to promote his work. C215's most recent show is entitled 'Community Service', currently running in Paris. Guémy's daughter Nina is a popular subject of his stencil art. She has also become a stencil artist in her own right.

Gallery

Ahmed Merabet par C215.jpg, Stencil in

in tribute to Ahmed Merabet, killed in the

Charlie Hebdo shooting On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. CET local time, two French Muslim terrorists and brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper ''Charlie Hebdo'' in Paris. Armed with ...

C215 Brooklyn.jpg, Stencil in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York Djerba Er Riadh Street Art 18.JPG, Mural in Djerbahood,

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

HazardBerlinWallLille.png, Mural covering a Berlin Wall segment in Lille OSC training center

References

External links

*
C215 official Flickr account

C215's street pieces on Street Art London

street art boosts economy - Christian Guémy (C215) interview

Interview with C215 on YouTube

Interview with C215 on Urbanartcore.eu

Images from C215's exhibition 'Stencil Bastards' at the Starkart Gallery in Zurich

{{DEFAULTSORT:C215 (Street Artist) French graffiti artists Artists from Paris

Gallery

Further reading

References

External links