Cash For Your Warhol.  (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Street Artist Combo says he was beaten for his street art advocating religious tolerance and naturally there has been a series of Je Suis Charlie variants appearing in the streets of Paris since we last checked in with this hot spot on the Street Art scene, so you know that many newly appearing works are charged with socio-political relevance. In these new images you will also see some fresh ideas from new names as well as long-term players, so those are encouraging signs of a vibrant scene as well.

You may also note an increase in the professional/commercial quality of some of these pieces and murals and begin to question how long a free-wheeling organic Street Art scene can last before low level opportunists cash in on it and turn it into a sad strip mall selling tchotchkes or derivative works by anonymous artists like a machine. Ah, capitalism, of thee we all sing.

The London scene has elements of this, so do New York and Melbourne, but we didn’t see it so obviously until photographer Geoff Hargadon returned from Paris with these excellent photos for BSA readers and gave us his account of a store he wandered into.  Enjoy his account further along in this posting.

In the mean time, long live Paris and it’s many players on the street!

Love or money? Mygalo (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Philippe Herard (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Philippe Herard (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Kashink . Bault (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Philippe Vignal (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Don’t slip! Not a Clet banana peel, but it easily could be. Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Ender (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

VHILS (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Jerome Mesnager (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Combo (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Invader (It is a fake Invader we heard) . Mega Matt (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Invader (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Invader (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Una Vida (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Graffity…sans graffiti  (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Bault (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Bault . Artist At Ome AKA Atom (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Fred le Chevalier (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Alaniz . Sebr (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

C215 (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Berns . FKDL (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Michael Beerens (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

We couldn’t ID this artist. It bears a certain resemblance to ALIAS but we can’t say for sure.  (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Tragic Optimist . Gzup . Le Diamantaire . Mega Matt . Monsieur BMX (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Tragic Optimist (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Suriani (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Sebr (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Sara Conti (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Nemo (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Madame Moustache  (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Michael Kershnar  (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Monkey Bird . Le Diamanataire (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Hopare (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Geoff’s account of his discovery in a heavily trafficked area known for Street Art in Paris recently. “Rue Déyonez is an active street for street art, with de facto legal walls on each side showing work from the most prolific Parisian artists. So I was walking up Rue Déyonez and this door was half open. I would not say it was exactly inviting but somehow I wiggled my way in. This guy named Pedro was in there with a friend, drinking tea.”

A quick scan reveals Warhol, Hendrix, Obama, Woody Allen at the clarinet, Freud, and of course Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks? Pedro’s Gallery (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

“I looked around and saw that the room was completely filled with stenciled paintings of (mostly) American figures such as Warhol, Obama, Hendrix, Marilyn Monroe, and lots of Jimi Hendrix. The smell of aerosol was intense, and I quickly concluded my host had never worn a protective mask in his working life. Pedro probably set up camp to capitalize on the flow of visitors to this concentrated display of street art. I didn’t quite catch where he was from originally and I don’t think it was France. He was certainly cordial. I poked around his rooms full of literally hundreds of stencils while he allowed me to ignore the PAS DE PHOTOS sign on the pole. I left with a (overpriced) stencil on a Paris map.”

Pedro’s Gallery (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Our sincere thanks to Geoff Hargadon for his contributions and for sharing with BSA readers his unique perspective and talent.

For more Street Art from Paris:

Paris Street Art : Spencer Elzey in Europe

Towering Gallery Full of Art to Be Demolished : “La Tour Paris 13″

Paris: A Mid-Summer Mural Art Dispatch

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