Ash

Who is Ash?

Ash also called Victor Ash is originally a street artist from Paris, France.

He started his artistic career as a graffiti writer in the early 1980s and from 1983 to 1986 he also called himself Saho and Ash2. Ash was part of the Parisian graffiti collective BBC or Badbc with JayOne and Skki; they were pioneers in the European graffiti movement with Bando, Mode2, and Jonone.

Inspired from the New York City subway graffiti styles, they were the first wave of street artists in Europe before Banksy or Zevs.

In 1989 The French fashion designer Agnès b. invited Ash, Jonone, Jayone, Skki and a few more graffiti writers to take part in the exhibition "Les peintres de la ville" at the Galerie du Jour situated in the neighborhood of Beaubourg in Paris; it was the first time Ash was showing his paintings inside a gallery.

Ash’s newest pieces are aesthetically very different from the graffiti he was painting in the 80ts. His works are totally detached from the traditional graffiti styles of New York. He has developed a personal identity by inspiring himself from his one culture and experiences, still keeping the energy and direct communication with the viewer that graffiti provides. His latest works are often reflections on human nature; it sets the observer to interrogate himself about, for example, current social problems. Ash often uses the themes of contrast between the urban environments and nature and young people's quest for identity in subcultures.