Invader

An anonymous French street artist, Invader keeps his identity permanently hidden, describing himself as an Unidentified Free Artist, his pseudonym reflecting his mission to invade international spaces with viral art. After graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he struggled to break into the traditional gallery scene, ultimately taking his work directly to the streets instead.

From the late 1990s he began fixing ceramic mosaic Space Invaders, pixelated characters drawn from the 1978 video game of the same name, across the streets of Paris, before expanding his cast to include Pac-Man ghosts and other 8-bit figures. Each new city begins with a scouting mission to find the perfect spots for anywhere between 20 and 50 installations, a process that has seen his work reach 79 cities across 20 countries.

Since 2000 his work has also been exhibited in galleries around the world, and his profile grew further after appearing in the 2010 street art documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. In 2019, one of his pieces made it to the International Space Station, some 248 miles above Earth, confirming that for Invader, no wall is ever truly out of reach.