If you have been living in Hong Kong for some time, you must definitely have seen the colourful “Chicanos” chickens graffitis by Ceet Fouad on every street corner and big colourful murals.

On the occasion of Affordable Art Fair 2024, we decided to shed a light on the Hong Kong-based painter and graffiti artist. His artworks will be exhibited at the booth of Step Creation Gallery from 16 to 19 May.

Ceet Fouad

Born in 1971 in Oran, Algeria, of Moroccan descent, Ceet moved to Toulouse, France, in 1978 at the age of seven and grew up in the popular and working-class districts. “I was not a school expert! I was playing football and later enrolled in the Sport-Etude programme to play Basque pelota. I started hip hop dance and graffiti as a teenager,” Ceet recalls.

Attracted by drawing from an early age, he is an autodidact who just wanted to be free. At the beginning, it was just a game. He was hanging out with his friends and painting lettering and characters, never expecting that one day he would become an artist doing exhibitions in galleries and museums. Even now, Ceet still remains humble with his “kid’s mentality”.

Ceet Fouad’s Chicken

In 2001, Ceet arrived in China. Because of the language barrier, he started scribbling visual images as a way to communicate. When ordering food, he was drawing a chicken on his notebook to indicate what he wanted to eat (chicken which he loves!). In Hong Kong, Ceet quickly started to paint his signature chicken on the walls with a sense of humour, wishing for people to come across the chicken randomly and laugh about it.

In love with the city’s streets and industrial areas, Ceet started to decline his chickens in different creative ways by painting bigger murals with colourful “chicanos”. “I love painting on huge walls, it’s more physical and the technique is different,” he explains.

Ceet Fouad, Mural, Hong Kong

Through the colourful humorous approach, Ceet’s humanised chicken serve as a parody of humans living in this modern and over-crowded world, in a society bringing up followers afraid to stand out as individuals, always going with the tide.

Based between Hong Kong and Shenzen since 2002, Ceet has founded the artist residency Jardin Orange in Shenzhen, inspired by the Jardin Rouge residency by Montresso Art Foundation in Morocco, with the aim to nurture artists from around the world.

A prolific artist, he has experimented with different media, acrylic and oil paint, as well as pens, markers, metal paints and sprays common to street artists. The results are richly textured and saturated surfaces, successfully evoking emotions of endearment and fun in his vibrant canvases.

Ceet Fouad, Mural for Step Creation Gallery, Hong Kong, 2023

Over the years, Ceet became well known internationally, exhibiting in galleries and contemporary art shows, and collaborating with recognised brands like Prada, Loewe, Lancel, Fila, Adidas and W Hotel. His paintings on canvas have been showcased regularly in Hong Kong at Amanda Wei Gallery and will be exhibited at Step Creation Gallery by Stéphane Vartanian and Chiharu Kameyama during Affordable Art Fair 2024.

Don’t miss the performance of Ceet who will be live painting a 30-metre wall at the Fair Café!

More details can be found on www.stepcreation.com

Painting by Ceet Fouad