Tarek Ben Yakhlef aka Tarek French Artist / painting, photographie, street art and comic book Born in Paris in 1971 and working in Rennes Member of ADAGP
« I started painting on canvas in 1990, after practicing graffiti from the end of 1985. I continued the graffiti until 1992, one year after the release of my book Paris Tonkar. Photography became my priority in art from 1991. Nevertheless, I continued to paint and draw during this period. In 2010, I decided to show my work on canvas and other media because I feel that after over 22 years of practice, I have reached some form of maturity that I like and I want to share with the public. »
Bio
Graduate of the Sorbonne (University Paris I) in medieval history and art history, Tarek released Paris Tonkar in 1991 at the age of 19 years: the first art book published in Europe dedicated to Spraycan art in Paris. It has become a reference book for all amateurs of urban art and specialists of Hip-‐hop. He has exhibited his first paintings in 1992 in the Chapon gallery at the great exhibition Paris Graffiti, a significant event because the magazine 1Tox was presented the same time. He helped organize this exhibition and launch of the magazine: graffiti art knows his moment of glory during this period.Tarek chose to break away from that environment to better concentrate on his studies and writing of his master devoted to the Neo-‐Platonists in Baghdad during the golden age of the Abbasids. He studied Arabic at the Bourguiba Institute in Tunis from 1992 to 1993, while making numerous photo reports. Tarek has lived in Damascus between 1995 and 1997, where he taught French and has given conferences at the French Cultural Centre (Damascus and Aleppo) and the School of Fine Arts in Latakia. His photographic work is exposed to Latakia and Damascus, then in France in many places including the Syrian Cultural Center in Paris and various cultural areas in the provinces. Since 1999, Tarek has written more than sixty albums; he has worked with several publishers and he has won many awards including the Saint-‐Michel for Best Screenplay in 2007 for Sir Arthur Benton. That same year, his work on this series has been exhibited at the Caen’s Memorial for four months: it was the first time a comic was well highlighted in a place for history and memory. His comics for young people are regularly used in schools since 2004.He regularly gives conferences on comics, history and contemporary art.