Beautifully Drawn Black and White Posters Pop Up on Paris Streets

Paris-based street artist Alexandre Monteiro, known by his pseudonym Hopare, is instantly recognizable for his ability to combine the abstract and figurative. Delicate linework outlines the features of his usually female figures, while geometric lines slice and dice the face into smaller shapes.

While Monteiro is in full studio mode preparing for his November solo show in Paris, his first in five years in the capital, he took a break last month to get out into the street. A large, 13-foot-tall poster pasted on the walls of Paris introduced his new series, The Fabric of Silences, to the world.

In it, a young woman looks to the side with a determined gaze. She appears to almost step out of a geometric frame, with flowers and a scarf framing her face. She seems pensive, with thoughts weighing her down.

“Its lines are woven from stories, from heavy gazes, from words kept deep inside,” the artist writes on Instagram. “This face belongs to all those who never had the space, the time, or the right to speak.” It’s a beautiful sentiment in a public space, where others surely struggle with these same feelings.

This aesthetic choice to creating black and white posters is a refreshing return to Hopare’s roots, coming of age in a street art scene that wasn’t dominated by large murals, but small, quiet works that surprise passersby. As he continues on this path, we look forward to seeing what’s next.