So Fu

So Fu, is a classically trained French artist, whose hip hop inspired work though rooted in classicism is a continuing dialogue with neo-expressionist graffiti artists from the late 1970s and 80s.

His work is fast, responsive and instinctive, and is produced on canvas and cardboard. Given his ‘no time to lose’ mindset he favors acrylic because of its rapid drying time which is often overlaid with oil pastels and sometimes spray paint.

So Fu’s pictures are rooted in conflict, in a colonial history that brought him from France to the Ivory Coast and a life of tumult and war. His escape lay in the paintings of the French masters, Géricault and Delacroix, and the poets and philosophers of 19th and 20th century. Into that potent mix came urban art, an immediate and expressive form that enabled him to tell his story, quickly, viscerally and in tune with the burgeoning hip hop scene.