Sowat

Sowat is a Franco-American artist who grew up between the south of France and Los Angeles and fell in love with graffiti culture as a teenager. His work draws inspiration from the long lost cuneiform scripts of Sumerian tablets and the contemporary Cholo Writing, a style of calligraphy invented by Californian Latino gangs to mark their territory. Sowat’s canvases which he refers to as ‘typographic mazes’ blend the rawness of the streets with a refined exploration of form, shape and letters becoming a dynamic fusion of vibrant colours, fluid mechanics, abstract calligraphies and automatic writing. 

A member of the Da Mental Vaporz crew, since 2010 Sowat has been collaborating with cult Parisian graffiti artist Lek with whom he has multiplied larger than life in situ projects across countries such as France, Hong Kong, India, and the UK. 

Sowat has developed a skill for creating experimental videos which culminated in the films "Mausolée," "Underground doesn't Exist Anymore" and "Tracés Directs," which joined the permanent collections of the Pompidou Center in 2014. In 2016, Lek & Sowat were the first artists to emerge from graffiti and realize a project at the prestigious Villa Medici in Rome. Since then, they have collaborated with numerous prestigious French institutions such as the Pompidou Center, the Palais de Tokyo or Lyon’s Opera House.

Sowat lives and works in Paris and is represented by Galerie Le Feuvre & Roze.