Germán Bel

Germán Bel, also known as Fasim (1972), pioneering urban artist in Spain, active since the 1980s. Henry Chalfant played an important role in Fasim's career and was a key player in his later artistic development. In 1992, the artist traveled to Paris to Jonone and BadBC's studio at Hôpital éphémère where he lived for a few days and contemplated the process of creation on canvas and the emergence of urban art in art galleries, having joined the mythical crew of 156allstarz . Fasim's paintings take us to a dreamlike world where a game  visual and poetic look seems to dominate the surface of the works, whether in the engraving of some tiles or in the erased or chipped stains on any urban wall. To a large extent, this game is the first inspiration of artists in the caves, where images appeared in the reliefs of the rocks and is certainly the birthplace of painting. Fasim has painted on countless walls, exhibitions and shows in many cities around the world; Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Madrid, Toulouse, Perpignan, Marseille, Paris, New York, Berlin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Milan, Naples or Sarajevo, among others. The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (MuCEM) recently acquired three paintings and six drawings, which will be included in the Urban Art collection of the Marseille Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC). «(…) the police and city officials in New York City claimed back in the seventies, that Graffiti was an entry-level crime, leading down the slippery slope to a criminal career. How wrong they have proven to be. I have observed that an apprenticeship in graffiti has led more than a few adolescent taggers and bombers to find brilliant careers as painters, designers, publishers and filmmakers. I find no better example of this phenomenon than Fasim.» Henry Chalfant