Invader

Keeping his real identity firmly under wraps, the French street artist known as Invader is internationally famous for invading the world on a global scale. Using public spaces as his canvas, he has installed more than 4,000 mosaic murals on the walls of cities worldwide, from Manchester to Marrakech.

Featuring long-lost video game characters, his works, which mimic the crude, pixelated graphics of the 1980s, are made up of thousands of miniature ceramic tiles and evoke a deep sense of nostalgia. Alongside his ongoing “invasion waves”, the artist has pioneered an art movement known as Rubikcubism, which continues his exploration of pixels through a series of mosaic artworks composed entirely of Rubik’s Cubes.

Because of his desire to remain incognito, little is known about Invader’s upbringing or education. He was first brought to the public’s attention in the late 1990s, when mosaic Space Invaders began popping up on the streets of Paris. Inspired by the 1978 Atari game, the artist’s miniature alien mosaics soon evolved into a whole cast of 8-bit characters. Although Invader has always prioritised working in the public space, by the new millennium, he had started exhibiting in both group and solo exhibitions, taking his art from the street to the gallery.