Laurent Proneur

Too close, Painting, Oil on Canvas

2020

Laurent Proneur — a French-born American painter and well-known street artist — describes his paintings and other works as a “neoteric experiment in fine art graffiti.” Raised in a family of circus performers, the visual artist and music producer has been surrounded by creativity since he was a child.

Proneur trained as an acrobat and juggler prior to his teenage years, so that he might join his family members as they traveled to perform in circuses all over Europe. It wasn’t long before Proneur would discover graffiti on the streets of Paris. 

Proneur eventually adopted the subversive art form as a way for him to express himself and during the mid-1980s began tagging alongside widely known street artists such as Jonone 156 and Futura 2000 — names he cites as influences today alongside the likes of Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso. As street art has long been part of the hip hop culture in the United States, rap music and production also became integral to Proneur’s life. During the 1990s, he established an independent production company, wrote and produced songs for himself and other artists, and worked with labels such as Sony and BMG.

Proneur continued to create works of street art over the years, gaining recognition among the other active artists in France and earning acclaim in a book published by Paris Tonkar magazine, a publication that covers street art in Europe. He studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris for three years and now works out of his studio in Los Angeles, California. 

In 2017, Proneur collaborated with the German bicycle company Haibike to help raise funds for the youth mountain biking programs of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association. The artist has had group and solo exhibitions at Gallery Montaigne, Terrell Moore Gallery, Maison de la Culture Paris and more.

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