Salvador Dali

This stencil piece by French artist Christian Guémy (a.k.a. C215) depicts Spanish artist and surrealism master Salvador Dalí. The piece is small in size and can be easily missed. It is located in a low window in the Cuesta de Santo Domingo, between the begining of the street and the Alliance Françcaise de Madrid.

Born in 1973, C215 started spray painting in 2005 and is today one of the finest, and most productive stencil artists on the street art scene. Guémy explains: "I try to interact with context, so I place in the streets elements and characters that belong especially to the streets. I like to show things and people that society aims at keeping hidden: homeless people, smokers, street kids, bench lovers for example".

Shepard Fairey says about Guémy: "C215's art captures a light, depth, and humanity that is difficult, and rare using stencils, his chosen medium. Stencils tend to flatten images and make them static, but C215 has developed a style of illustrating and stenciling that yields an impressionistic illumination of his subject's character. Even though his technique is meticulously refined, C215's work transcends the formal and seems to get to the core of compassion and belief in the human spirit. Encountering C215's pieces on the street always makes me happy".