Born in Lille on November 25, 1972, Shehab “Blade” Charef, graffiti artist, comes from the wave of Hip Hop culture in France at the end of the 80’s. An active member of the Zulu Nation, he has never stopped exploring the possibilities of urban graphic expression and its translation into lines, signs and colors. His painting expresses an attentive look at the contemporary world with its wonders and its quirks.

However his work is not limited to wall supports, today Blade continues its exploration through increasingly varied visual supports. He wants to be a catalyst of this art towards a heterogeneous public, in constant evolution. BLADE2: AN URBAN TESTIMONY. Confidential and reserved for initiates in its early days, Hip-Hop has found its place in the city but also, more broadly, in society. Carried by an attitude and a musical movement, it has developed even within mega-cities and has gained autonomy and sustainability without ignoring any of the cultural influences of its many representatives. Thus delivered to the largest museum in the world: the street, graffiti has become for its authors a vital act combining a sense of creation and a means of social claim. His great ability to federate, to adapt (regardless of the place, the time, the medium, etc.) and to spread has made him the mode of expression of hundreds and then thousands of artists, the most young for the latest arrivals to the elderly, of which Blade is now part.

He got involved very early on in Hip-Hop in which he found real artistic roots. To this backbone have been added its intrinsic values, at the crossroads of Eastern and French cultures to nurture a work in perpetual evolution, the scope of which has widened. First made on the walls, his graffiti is now also displayed on canvas or sculptures. Because the street is no longer enough and because the audiences are as numerous and different as the possible supports. But the links, often invisible because a priori unrelated or downright irreconcilable, are there and it is up to the artists to enhance them.

This is the voice that Blade has chosen to assert his status as an artist but also as a citizen because the Other remains a fundamental concern. So surprise to challenge but not to shock so as not to turn. This faith in humanity and this social involvement are expressed in public various ways during major international festivals, classes organized in partnership with the National Education, various workshops with entertainment centers, exhibitions and events but sometimes also in the workshop bubble for orders of graphic research (lettering and logos) and the creation of canvases. Blade’s message is simple: deliver. And find its place…