Quick Facts
Biography
Eltono is a French artist born in the suburbs of Paris in 1975. His work is mostly influenced by his graffiti background. He started painting around 1989 in his neighborhood mostly on train tracks and highway walls. "Eltono focused mainly on the railway lines to the northwest of the city, painting in the traditional silver and black, block letter Parisian style." He lived in Madrid from 1999 to 2010 (where he got his pseudonym), then in Beijing from 2010 to 2014 and since 2014 lives in the south of France. In 1999, while living in Madrid, he started painting abstract symbols with tape and acrylic paint. "It was then that he developed the colorful geometric box patterns for which he is now known." "As Eltono himself suggested, his move away from traditional graffiti was produced so as to find a harmony with both the material and the social body of the city (integrating both its architectonic and societal elements in a more consensual manner)." "Eltono also rejects conventional letterforms in favor of a minimalism device with which to negotiate space."
Eltono's work is mainly influenced by the urban environment and questions the limits between public and private space. He uses the term "public space artist" to describe his practice. When showing his work in galleries and museums, he focuses on finding a coherent way to show street art in private spaces. "[Eltono's] career in both the street and the galleries [], is an example of a certain ethic of sustained work, oblivious to everything, which creates its own parameters and builds its own audience."
He has collaborated with artists such as MOMO (artist), Nuria Mora (http://nuriamora.com/), Luce and is part of Equipo Plástico art collective (alongside Nuria Mora, Nano4814 and Sixeart) and Noviciado9 (alongside 3ttman, Remed, Spok, Nano4814 and Luciano Suarez).
Solo exhibitions (selection)
- 11/2015: Lugares Comunes, Set Espai d’Art, Valencia, Spain
- 10/2015: Aléas, Delimbo, Seville, Spain
- 06/2015: Incontrôlables, Instituto Cervantes de Paris, Paris, France
- 03/2014: Amalgama, Slowtrack, Madrid, Spain
- 07/2012: Deambular, Artium Museum, Vitoria, Spain
- 06/2012: 1/1, C-Space gallery, Caochangdi, Beijing, China
- 10/2011: Eredu, SC Gallery, Bilbao, Spain
- 05/2010: Retícula, Delimbo Gallery, Seville, Spain
- 01/2009: Coriandoli, Cripta747, Turin, Italy
- 01/2009: Pubblico, ROJO®artspace, Milan, Italy
- 09/2008: PLAF – Autonomous Mechanisms, New York, U.S.A.
- 07/2008: Bermellón, ROJO®artspace, Barcelona, Spain
- 06/2008: Astillas, La Culpable, Lima, Peru
- 10/2007: Eltono at ART, Monterrey, Mexico
- 11/2006: Eigenkunstruktion, Artitude, Berlin, Germany
- 01/2006: (x, y, z), Vacío9, Madrid, Spain
- 10/2002: Complémentaires, Vacío 9, Madrid, Spain
Collective shows (selection)
- 07/2015: Arqueologia Prohibida, Conde Duque, Madrid, Spain
- 04/2015: Oxymores, Ministry of Culture, Paris, France
- 01/2015: Mapping The City, Somerset House, London, U.K.
- 09/2014: Artmossphere Biennial, Moscow, Russia
- 08/2013: Wooster Collective 10th Anniversary Show, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
- 09/2012: Biennale d’Art Contemporain du Havre, Le Havre, France
- 02/2010: Murals, Fundación Miró, Barcelona, Spain
- 05/2009: Observatori 2009, Valencia, Spain
- 05/2008: Street Art, Tate Modern Museum, London, U.K.
- 03/2008: Nomadaz, Scion Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
- 01/2007: Privé Och Público, Göteborg, Sweden
- 09/2006: Pintura Mutante, Marco Museum, Vigo, Spain
- 01/2006: 1st Art Biennial Foundation ONCE, Madrid, Spain
- 09/2003: Ill Communication, Urbis Museum, Manchester, U.K.
- 09/2002: Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, U.K.
- 06/2002: Coded Language, Atlanta, U.S.A.