Invader Heni

French artist Invader stages art “invasions” in cities around the world. He installs pixelated pieces inspired by 8-bit arcade video game characters on the walls of buildings in busy urban areas. Many of these mosaics depict the iconic aliens from the 1978 game Space Invaders, but Invader also uses characters from games like Super Mario Bros. and Pac-Man. He describes his work as contemporary street art. Though known for his public art, Invader also makes smaller-scale abstract prints and tile kits.

The real name of the man behind the Invader persona is purported to be Franck Slama. However, he keeps his identity private and his face a secret, wearing a mask in public and working under the cloak of night. Invader told The Talks magazine that not even his parents know about his life as a mosaicist — they think he works in the construction industry as a tiler.

Born in Paris in 1969, Invader grew up playing the ‘70s and ‘80s video games he now emulates in tile. He went on to graduate from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He is believed to have begun tagging the streets of his native city with urban artist Zevs at the end of the 1990s. In 1998, he branched out on his own with the “Space Invaders” project. 

Invader chose 8-bit characters as the subject of his work because he sees them as the icons of our digital world. He seeks not only to free the characters from their video games but also to liberate art itself from museums and institutions. Each "invasion" begins by scouting the city and finding the perfect spots for anywhere from 20 to 50 of his installations. Invader's creations have appeared in 79 cities in 20 different countries.

While committed to bringing art to the streets, Invader has shown his street art at museums and galleries around the globe. His solo exhibitions include Almine Rech Gallery in Paris, Citylights Gallery in Melbourne, Lazarides Gallery in London, PMQ in Hong Kong and Mima Museum in Brussels. His work is also immensely popular at art auctions and sells for tens of thousands of dollars.

On 1stDibs, find authentic Invader prints, mixed media works and other art.

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

Explore a vast range of abstract prints on 1stDibs to find a piece to enhance your existing collection or transform a space.

Unlike figurative paintings and other figurative art, which focuses on realism and representational perspectives, abstract art concentrates on visual interpretation. An artist may use a single color or simple geometric forms to create a world of depth. Printmaking has a rich history of abstraction. Through materials like stone, metal, wood and wax, an image can be transferred from one surface to another.

During the 19th century, iconic artists, including Edvard Munch, Paul Cézanne, Georgiana Houghton and others, began exploring works based on shapes and colors. This was a departure from the academic conventions of European painting and would influence the rise of 20th-century abstraction and its pioneers, like Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian.

Some leaders of European abstraction, including Franz Kline, were influenced by the gestural shapes of East Asian calligraphy. Calligraphy interprets poetry, songs, symbols or other means of storytelling into art, from works on paper in Japan to elements of Islamic architecture.

Bold, daring and expressive, abstract art is constantly evolving and dazzling viewers. And entire genres have blossomed from it, such as Color Field painting and Minimalism.

The collection of abstract art prints on 1stDibs includes etchings, lithographs, screen-prints and other works, and you can find prints by artists such as Joan Miró, Alexander Calder and more.