‘No Wings No Chocolate’
by CEET
in association with Le French May
Opening Event:
Saturday June 7th, 2014
Press Opening: 4‐6:30pm (By invitation only)
Public Opening: 6:30-°©‐8:30pm
After party: 8:30pm‐late
toof | contemporary
311 | 3F | Harbour Industrial Building | 10 Lee Hing Street | Ap Lei Chau | Hong Kong
Exhibition period: June 7th – July 26th, 2014
Opening hours: 11am-9pm, Wednesdays to Sundays
toof | contemporary in association with Le French May,is proud to present ‘No Wings, No Chocolate’, a comprehensive view of over 30 recent works by French‐Moroccan Urban Graffiti-turned studio artist CEET, featuring his signature theme ‘Los Chicanos’, using mixed media paintings on canvas, drawings, metal sculptures and inflatable balloons.
The exhibition will open with an opening reception on Saturday June 7th at 6.30pm and the artist will perform a live graffiti | mixed‐media painting at the opening event at 8.30pm.
CEET has created a substantial body of work, producing graffiti, paintings and mixed media works in his studio in Shenzhen. Locating his base of artistic production in China and Hong Kong for the past 15 years, he has explored the theme of chickens as an icon that emerged from his origins in Graffiti and more importantly as a metaphor for humanity, which originated in his first impressions of a country and it’s people.
‘No Wings no Chocolate‘
Pas de bras, pas de chocolat, refers to a French popular saying, roughly translated into ‘no handy, no candy’ which became famous in the movie “The Intouchables,” as a cruel joke. The modified title plays with the nature of ‘chicken as birds without wings’, unable to fly and unable to care for themselves.
Don’t be a chicken!
CEET’s humanized chicken portray emotions and personalities and through his colorful humorous approach criticizes modern society as bringing up ‘followers’, afraid to stand out as an individuals and to ‘chicken‐out’!
The title of the exhibition sends a clear invitation to take action and responsibility on reaching your dreams. When CEET landed in China he started scribbling visual images as a way of initial form of communication and these initial sketches soon evolved to means of experience and he made the connection between the reference of his experience of the densely populated China to the feeling being one of the chickens in the masses.
A prolific artist, 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. CEET is a regular artist‐in‐residence at the vast paradisical art estate in Marrakech called ‘Jardin Rouge’, and has exhibited in galleries alongside other urban artists such as Tats Cru, Toast and Noe Two, in countries spanning Asia including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, China, as well as France, Holland, Belgium, Austria and Morocco.
He has also collaborated with prestigious fashion brands including Prada, Ecko Unlt, Adidas and Le Coq Sportif.
