黑料不打烊

Sowat, a Franco-American artist based in Paris, offers an entirely new collection of works produced over the course of this year. Through time spent in his artist-in-residence studio, away from the world, Sowat has been able to refine his style. His art speaks a multifaceted language in a series of references: the tagging cherished by Sowat breathes life into shapes, curls, twists, spots and script directly inspired by a range of calligraphic aesthetics that widely adorn cityscapes: the cholo writing of Los Angeles (where some of his family lives), the Latin inscriptions in stone and marble found in Roman edifices, Arabic calligraphy the artist saw in Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, the lettering of the Hebrew alphabet he rediscovered while working in Tel Aviv, and Mandarin ideograms he closely observed during a stay in Hong Kong. Sowat鈥檚 painted writing mainly refers to world art in allusions ranging from ancient history to the micro-history of global cities like Los Angeles, with styles the artist recalls from his countless travels and makes his own.

Each of his depictions is a version of a new alphabet forming phrases that transform. His art is therefore a celebration of signs, expressed in an orderly frenzy intended by an artist who has become a divine alchemist making light of his own technique: to his painting and artistic movements he has added water and other fluids, leaving them to react together to transform his patterns. In this way, he has let natural forces alter and transmute the phrasing of his works.