Jean-François Perroy (1957, Nantes), better known by his pseudonym Jef Aérosol, is an uncontested pioneer of the Urban Art movement and a leading figure of the first generation of street artists who started working in the early 80s.
Jef Aérosol art: a dialogue between artists and society
Without discrimination, Jef Aérosol creates portraits of public figures and notorious personas, of anonymous characters, street artists, passers-by, beggars, and children alike: all are preferably depicted in black and white and characterized by an enigmatic red arrow, the artists’ renown signature and “brand”, to which street attenders are free to give their imaginative, personal meaning. Actors in the contemporary visual panorama, Jef’s protagonists seem, ultimately, to all look alike, as if both the consequence and contradictory mirror of the same collective tissue that defines them. Jef Aérosol reflects indeed both on famous and anonymous people to create a dialogue between artists and society.
Most important exhibitions
He has exhibited in important international institutions and events such La Condition Publique in Roubaix, France (2017), Volklingen art Biennale in Volklingen, Germany (2017, 2015, 2013), CAFA Museum in Beijing, China (2016), Musée des Beaux Arts in Chartres, France (2016), and LE M.U.R. in Bordeaux, France (2014). Among his public interventions is the legendary “Chuuuttt !!!”, a 350 square-meter piece executed next to and in collaboration with the Centre George Pompidou in Paris.
