Cyril Kongo
1969– · French graffiti artist and painter of Vietnamese descent
Cyril Kongo, born Cyril Phan in Toulouse in 1969, is a French painter and graffiti artist whose work puts large, colourful spray-painted lettering at the centre of urban art. The son of a Vietnamese father and a French mother, he spent his early childhood in Vietnam until the fall of Saigon in 1975. As a teenager he lived for several years in Brazzaville, in the Republic of the Congo, which inspired his artist name.
He began tagging Paris walls in 1986 and in 1988 joined the MAC crew, painting monumental murals from 1989 to 2001, especially in the United States, where he worked with New York's TATS Cru. His ephemeral period, from 1986 to 2000, left frescoes that survive only in photographs and films. From 2000 onward he has painted on permanent surfaces.
In 2002 he helped launch Kosmopolite, France's first international graffiti festival, which later spread to cities such as Amsterdam, Brussels and São Paulo. Since 2011 it has also run free workshops introducing young people and adults to urban art. His work has been shown in galleries and museums, and his first solo exhibition in Paris took place in 2011. He has also collaborated with luxury houses such as Hermès and Daum.