Since the late 1990s, Cyril Vilx has been creating his first graffiti in Angoulême. Passionate about drawing, he began blending graffiti and illustration, while incorporating storytelling into his work. After moving to Canada, he started painting exclusively on freight trains, exploring themes such as marginalization, life without work, travel, and freedom.
Deeply influenced at the age of 13 by Franquin's "Idées noires," Cyril Vilx published his own reflections in 2022: Foutu archifoutu. These horizontal murals depict stretched-out characters, whose proportions defy realism, delivering harsh truths about their fellow beings. Swinging between misanthropy, melancholy, and poetic flashes, Cyril Vilx's murals are intensely emotional. They combine a passionate love for line work-fluid yet strikingly precise-with a romantic yearning for humankind.
He also works with oil painting, where, despite a colourful and cartoonish appearance, harsh themes are revealed. His vision of nearby war, sedentary life, and agoraphobia are just a few of the topics he tackles - always with a touch of humor.
"Portraits of Broken Men" represents a series of men posing like classical 19th-century portraits. For the duration of his portrait, the subject poses straight, smiling, to appear well, denying all his problems and worries.
