Epokone

It all began in adolescence, with his brother: together they painted their first graffiti and tried their hand at photorealistic graffiti. Epokone grew up in hip-hop culture, which has never left him.

He then went on to art school, where he explored what connects graffiti and hip-hop, two practices that would remain linked throughout his career.

The phrase sums up his life and his two passions: rap music and the visual arts. It brings together the musicality and poetry of rap and the aesthetics of painting.

He paints it in capital letters, as on Ocean Time, Wonderful or Epokbrut 2, and in Chinese ideograms: 押韵的艺术和对艺术的热爱. It appears on Red Sunrise, Blue Lagoon, Citrus and Five Flower Lake.

For him, these characters, laden with a history spanning millennia, are a reminder that wisdom and harmony can emerge from the most turbulent of times.

Over twenty years, Epokone refined his style. Canvas became his preferred medium and soon attracted the interest of galleries. His linen canvases, painted in acrylic and varnished, range from 60 × 80 cm to 210 × 140 cm.

He has not left the wall behind, however. His murals are conceived together with those who commission them. In 2021, he painted one on the rue des Pénitents in Eauze, in the Gers, for the Street’Art’Magnac festival. In September 2025, his motto appeared on a wall on the Butte Montmartre, rue Androuet, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.

His canvases fall into three families. In the L’Art de la rime series, the motto and the ideograms structure the composition.

In the tag canvases, hundreds of overlapping letters cover the surface right to the edges. Such is the case with Color World and World Light, two large formats of 210 × 140 cm, and with Pink Power and Violetta.

In the gestural canvases, splashes and drips take over, in the spirit of action painting: Pink Heaven, Molten Ocean, Salva, Mojito.

In 2024, Epokone sculpted Stormtrooper Peace. It is a resin figure measuring 185 × 120 × 70 cm, painted entirely by hand in acrylic and Posca.

The soldier of the Empire embodies blind obedience. Behind the mask, however, there is a human being. Epokone covers the figure in vivid colours and messages of peace in ancient Chinese: “The icon of war becomes a vessel of hope.”

The same idea underlies the Epokone Tower, a 160 cm resin column heightened with 24-carat gold leaf. Its ideograms of love, peace and humanity make it, in the artist’s words, a message of fraternity.

Street art returns to board sports. Epokone painted a 135 cm snowboard, then skateboard decks. The four unique pieces in the Storm collection measure 60 × 15 cm. The Sk8te comprises eight numbered decks of 43 × 13 cm, and the diptych Waters of Turquoise brings two together. Each deck is signed, numbered and delivered with its certificate.

Alongside these works, he publishes prints in numbered editions of twenty, as well as a few derivative objects, which do not appear in this catalogue.

His canvases have been presented in Paris, notably at the Mendelsohn Gallery on the place de la Madeleine. They have also been shown in Valencia, Spain, at the Galerie Alaux, which offers Stormtrooper Peace, Onelove and Sandstorm, and in Brussels. His online gallery also mentions Cannes and Reims.

Epokone is now represented by ARTDELION.