IKSTE (York)

Iksté, who also signs as York, is a street artist from Lille whose single subject is the face. He paints almost nothing but portraits, and within the portrait almost nothing but the gaze, which he handles with a painter's precision rather than with the codes of graffiti.

That shift towards realism happened gradually: starting from lettering, he left the letter behind for a painted finish in which the texture of skin, the light and the contrasts carry everything. What he looks for in a face is not likeness but a state, and he says he puts sadness and pain into it rather than spectacle.

He works in the street without waiting for commissions, which is uncommon in his region at this level of realism: these portraits take hours and go up on walls that are not handed to him. His work can be seen across the Lille metropolitan area and also circulates as prints and canvases.