Before he began exhibiting his work in galleries, André Saraiva was known as Monsieur A in graffiti communities. Saraiva was active in the early Parisian graffiti movement, alongside Space Invader and Zevs. He became identified with his iconic, cartoonish character: a round-headed figure with long limbs and a circle and a cross for eyes—a subject that recurred in Saraiva’s early canvas paintings. In the 2000s, Saraiva began a performative project called “Love Graffiti” in which he would spray paint the name of someone’s lover at an address of his or her choosing. His later works continued to employ line, text, and clean-edged geometry. In 2012, he created a large-scale installation titled Andrépolis, resembling a city based on Paris and New York in miniature scale with neon lighting.
