Fin DAC has been working as a multi disciplinary artist, painter, illustrator and muralist for over a decade. His bold and vibrant style is a far cry from the brutalist social housing in which he grew up but, it was in these unlikely surroundings that the seeds of his creativity were first sown.

Much like Aubrey Beardsley (one of his favourite artists from Fin De Siècle), Fin DAC found inspiration in traditional Japanese woodblock prints, as well as being drawn to more contemporary and accessible art forms such as manga, graphic novels and science fiction.

His female portraiture incorporates a variety of seemingly opposing elements, centering around women who stand between worlds, mixing traditional dress and iconography with modern attitudes. A thread can be seen running through his portraiture conveying a sense of pride and dignity that feels almost conservative, though simultaneously suggesting a less serious, more playful side.

His appetite for fresh new ways of expressing himself have pushed Fin to continually evolve and diversify his methods thereby affording him the ability to create his own space in the art world.

For Fin DAC’s first Paris solo show the artist has decided to focus on the art, artists and time period that had the biggest influence on him as a child: the European art movements and artists of late 19th century. At that time, Paris was a melting pot of Eastern and Western styles and aesthetics with newly imported Japanese Wood Block prints influencing emerging artistic movements such as La Belle Epoque, Fin de Siècle and Japonisme as well as heavily impacting the world of advertising, marketing and poster design.

Taking his lead from that time period, those artists and their artworks, Fin DAC reforms and reimagines them within the context of his own work and the context of the contemporary space. In doing so he is paying tribute to those artists and continuing that lineage forward into the present, aligning the spirit of Fin de Siecle with his Carte Blanche show.

The show’s poster and subtitle ‘un jeu du mots’ (a play on words) is a tongue in cheek reference to both the literal translation of Carte Blanche, the universal understanding of it and also a nod to La Belle Epoque poster design.