Dran
Born in 1979 Dran is a Toulouse artist also known as the French Banksy because he is supported by Banksy, the most well-known name in the world of street art. He started to draw as a child copying comics and making wall graffiti from the age of 13. Dran enrolled in the Fine Arts School in Toulouse where he learnt numerous techniques: stencil, lithography, silkscreen, painting, serigraphy and photography which he combined and used in his art. Having a very critical eye on current society, Dran became a member of the Da Mental Vaporz crew (DMV) founded in 1999 and consisted of Blo, Bom-K, Sowat & Lek, Brusk, Gris1, Dran, ISO, Kan and Jaw.
Dran belongs to the same generation of urban artist like Mr Brainwash (born 1966), Pure Evil ( b. 1968), David Shrigley ( b. 1968), Ben Eine (b. 1970), Kaws ( b.1974), Os Gemeos (b.1974), Ludo ( b. 1976), Richard Orlinski ( b. 1966) and Vhils (b. 1987). Dran uses dark humour behind his deceptively naïve and simple images in his art and says: “Even though the children in my drawings don’t look like me, the way they play and escape through dreaming is what I’m all about.”
His art follows the tradition of Roy Lichtenstein ( 1923-1997), Haruki Murakami ( b. 1949), Blek le Rat ( b. 1951), Robert Combas ( b. 1957), Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), and Speedy Graphito ( b. 1961).
