The Arrow by Lek

“The arrow is a key element in the history of graffiti. In New York, each graffiti artist was looking to find his own, and that’s what I did too. I tried out various styles, and I settled on this one because it was the best suited to this kind of surface. Before they got partly obscured by other work, these sets of black and red arrows spread out across much of the façade made up the word LEK, and this type of arrow was a very effective way of executing my personalised lettering. Using this motif to create the outline of my letters also gave me the chance to look at the work from both sides of the glass – at least retaining the readability of the arrow, and hence of my identity.”

Biography of the Artist
Lek first started working in graffiti at the end of the 80s. An innovator and pioneer in the discipline known as urbex, which involves seeking out suitable abandoned locations, he developed an abstract, architectural aesthetic that soon won him the recognition of his peers. 2010 saw him dedicating over a year to his most ambitious project, Le Mausolée – an unauthorised artistic residency in an abandoned supermarket in North Paris. He went on to co-organise the first-ever collective graffiti exhibition in the Palais de Tokyo, while also participating in countless other projects such as the Tour Paris 13. Lek was one of the first graffiti artists to work in the buildings in Pantin.