Epi

Epi, Hard Times Charles Dickens, 2023

2023

Epi was born in Bristol but lived in Paris for the majority of his former years. His first works began to appear in the early 2000’s on walls around central Paris. These involved stencilled quotations taken from seminal works of the French literary canon. Unfortunately for Epi, this earned him near-universal condemnation and opprobrium, putting him firmly in the sights of the Gendarmerie Nationale. Upon his return to Britain in 2014, Epi recognised that stencilling lofty French literary quotes on walls was probably an unwise career path to embark upon. Heavily influenced by the stencil movement that had its roots in 1960’s Parisian political protest art, Epi adapted his style, eschewing wall for canvas and reinterpreting the visual zeitgeist with a technique that would incorporate graffiti, Surrealism, Minimalism, Pop, and mid-century poster art. At the heart of his work lies a deep suspicion of the art establishment whose ignorance, avarice and capriciousness he has long found abhorrent and a desire to poke fun at the very métier in which he chooses to make his living. Through his work he endeavours to depict a fantastical narrative that runs parallel to the pedestrian and mundane that is, a secondary reality, one where things both conventional and bizarre live together, as if bourgeois culture were shifted marginally towards chaos and absurdity. He strives to bring his work into the reach of a broader base of modern collectors than usual. Namely those who would typically shy away from expensive gallery pieces and London auctions.