Ceet Fouad

Ceet Fouad [pronounced: “see-TEE”] is part of the world’s second generation of graffiti artists, since he began painting in the 1980s. He is considered one of the first, original painters of France.

Ceet Fouad was born in Algeria, of Moroccan descent, and moved to Toulouse, France, in 1978 at the age of seven years old. Since 2003, Fouad has been based out of southern China, near Hong Kong, as a prolific muralist, contemporary painter and business entrepreneur. He has ventured into graphic design to creating various sculptures and installations for various public, sponsored events. He has recently started his own new artist residency project called Jardin Orange in Shenzhen, China, which invites several international and local urban artists every month.

In adolescence, in 1988, he began tagging and bombing trains with his localgroup of friends, locally known as La Terrasse Possee between 1988 till 1990. Then, he became part of several other crews in the following years:

• 1990 - 1992 ABS crew
• 1990 - 1992 TruSkool crew
• 2000 - 2004 TRUMAC crew - a fusion between MAC (Mort Aux Cons from Paris) and Truskool (from Toulouse)

He was officially sponsored by Adidas during 8 years from 1997 till 2004. During this time CEET was invited to travel across the U.S. He e eventually met up with the TATS CRU in the Bronx, New York City, which was the joining together of the French and NYC circles of graffiti.

Ceet has experimented with different media to achieve his characteristic level of quality, using acrylic and oil paint, as well as pens, markers, metal paints and sprays more familiar to street artists. The result is a richly textured and saturated surface and successfully evokes emotions of endearment and fun in his vibrant canvases.

‘The Chicanos’ Chicken Story (Note: the humorous “Los Chicanos” title, written with a capital “C” - has nothing to do with the Chicano Movement of the 1960s.)

When Ceet landed in China in 2002, he started scribbling visual images as a way of initial form of communication and these initial doodling sketches soon evolved to means of humour. The chicken references soon symbolised his experiences of living amongst the densely populated Chinese people of the city.

The last eight years while in China, Ceet has been painting these funny «Chicanos» characters: they are small, colourful chickens with large eyes and round bodies. When asked what they mean, the artist has alluded that they serve as a parody of us human beings as we live in this modern, over-crowding world. In a deeper interpretation, the Chicanos chicken has been considered a “criticism of modern society for bringing up ‘followers’, people who afraid to stand out.

Ceet has exhibited in galleries in countries including: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, China, France, Holland, Belgium, Austria, USA and Morocco. While he continually exhibits in galleries all across the world each year, Ceet’s presence in well-known international contemporary art shows over the last two decades serve as a true testament to his dedicated hard work and well-deserved place in the contemporary art world. Also, he also has been a regular artist-in-residence at the Montresso* Foundation’s art estate in Marrakech called Jardin Rouge since 2014 together with others fellows artists like Jace (artist).

Some important exhibitions that he has participated in

• 1997 Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art
• 1999 Museum of Modern Art in Vienna
• 2000 National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions in Paris
• 2001 Museum of Castres
• 2007 Shenzhen — Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture
• 2015 UrbanArt Biennale in Germany
• 2016 Pop-Up Show at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Besides being a visual artist, Ceet has also an affinity for music. From a young age he has performed as a disk jockey across the world. He started being known as DJ Patrick Douchafleur, then became DJ Colonel Douchafleur; finally he is currently known as DJ Ceet. Ceet had Adidas sponsor the production of four breakbeat LE records of 1000 copies each:

• TruSkool (vol.1, 1988)
• El Camion (Vol.1, 2001)
• El Camion (Vol.2, 2002)
• El Camion (Vol.3, 2003)

• Graffiti Asia, Ryo Sanada, Suridh Hassan, Studio Rarekwai (London, England), Laurence King, 2010.
• Truskool: une histoire du graffiti à Toulouse, Olivier Gal, Atlantica, 2016.