Pablo Tomek
The hidden side of Paris
“Only do something when it makes sense, when it is connected to a concept and there is a reason to do it.”
Pablo Tomek dropped out of school for graphic design because he found it boring. He didn’t like following strict design guidelines and working to client’s briefs. It was very different to the freedom he felt doing graffiti in the streets of Paris with his friends as a teenager. As Tomek transitioned from graffiti to painting in the 2010s, his work became more and more abstract. Now, his bold, intuitive brush strokes have become his signature style. With layers of colour and paint, they pop out from the canvas in an almost cartoonish way. To make the works, he also incorporates found materials...
Pablo Tomek dropped out of school for graphic design because he found it boring. He didn’t like following strict design guidelines and working to client’s briefs. It was very different to the freedom he felt doing graffiti in the streets of Paris with his friends as a teenager. As Tomek transitioned from graffiti to painting in the 2010s, his work became more and more abstract. Now, his bold, intuitive brush strokes have become his signature style. With layers of colour and paint, they pop out from the canvas in an almost cartoonish way. To make the works, he also incorporates found materials like bricks – a nod to the chaos and movement of urban life.
As a born and bred Parisian, Tomek is inspired by the rhythms of the city. A far cry from the tourist hotspots, Tomek explains that his studio is “in an area where everything is pretty chaotic, buildings are destroyed every day, there is no commercial life”. In 2016, he took this rugged aesthetic to the pristine and polished Palais de Tokyo, painting the structural brick arches at the back of the building. Then, in 2021 Tomek returned to the venue for another installation, Blanc de Polak. He painted the windows white, mimicking the brushstrokes of window cleaners across the city. In Tomek’s work, the hidden side of Paris surfaces in unexpected places.
Pablo Tomek (he/him) was born in Paris, 1988. He continues to live and work in the city.
Tomek collaborated with Virgil Abloh for the Off-White Pre-Fall 2017 show, adding his gestural painting to puffer jackets, trousers and t-shirts.
Tomek’s father was an amateur painter, exposing him to painting at an early age.
