ARTIST STATEMENT
« Rien ne naît ni ne périt, mais des choses déjà existantes se combinent, puis se séparent de nouveau » - Anaxagore
ARTIST BIO
Francesco Fikesh was born in Cambodia in 1972 & has lived on all five continents before settling in Paris in 2018.
Professional actor, voice-over artist and radio host, he developed in his spare time a very personal, 100% handmade, montage technique for which he uses hardly any scissors, no glue whatsoever, and computers only to stencil, detail & print.
The raw materials are recycled images from books, newspapers, magazines, publications, old photos and the like, bound and blended together by a tape-transfer method, to create his own take on Pop Art.
His inspiration & iconography ranges from Americana’s retro pulpy adventure books, trash novels’ imagery, burlesque, tattoo culture, kitsch glamour, rock & roll, cold war ambience, fashion magazines, 60’s & 70’s B-movies, skateboard stickers, to any form of subculture.
The originals are usually A4 paper size and are scanned in high definition, printed on metal, metallic paper, vinyl, canvas, tee-shirts and more, in their full integrity, or as stencils, or extracted details. Each art print is individually numbered and signed, in limited editions of 12.
His first collection on exhibit “Pin-Ups Vs. Tough Men” was shown in various venues from 2009 to 2011 in London and Paris.
The most recent collection, “The Devil is in the Detail”, was on display at the Paris Vintage Festival in March 2019, in Barbizon in July & August 2019, and is scheduled for further exhibits in 2020.