Alexandre Delaunay was born in Le Havre in 1988. Mascarade emerged in the 2000s through the alchemy of masks and spray paint. He comes from a world that combines graffiti with advertising and graphic design, which he studied. His colorful works contain symbols, sharp contours, and stylized images that speak to the subconscious and the imagination.
Mascarade draws inspiration from his hometown of Le Havre, both the unique architecture of Auguste Perret and the town’s distinctive light, which the Impressionists deeply appreciated and immortalized.
Since the start of his career, the breadth of Mascarade’s work has grown to include murals, paintings, boat sails, ceramics. He has multiple artworks on exhibit in Paris, Deauville, Saint-Pierre (Reunion Island), Calvi, and Dubai.
Like many young people from the Le Havre area, the freedom and adrenaline generated by tagging with friends in disused premises became almost addictive, and Mascarade devoted all his time to graffiti, preferring those outdoor moments to school.
Fascinated by masks and the symbolism they represent, the artist drew his pseudonym from them, as well as his flagship character "Super Mascarade", a symbol of freedom that expresses itself in opposition to the established order.
The artist sold his first artworks at the age of 16, then took on a series of odd jobs before enrolling at the École des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre. As he trained in graphic design and advertising, he learned the importance of a snappy message, quickly understood by all. This led to his reduced choice of colors: at first, he only used the three primary colors. He later switched to monochrome paintings or paintings with only a few bold hues. He has a taste for simple, symbolic images.
After working in a communication agency, Mascarade devoted himself to creation, painting and selling his canvases from a small studio in the back of a family store.
In 2012, as part of the contemporary art biennial in Le Havre, he pulled off a major coup by pasting a 12-meter-long Super Mascarade onto the walls of the Oscar Niemeyer Volcan, Le Havre's national art scene.
2015 sees the opening of his first workshop-exhibition space: The Mascarade Shop.
This is where he painted hundreds of works based on the architectural elements of his hometown for a major exhibition at the Art Hôtel in 2016.
Locals are thrilled by these colorful canvases that symbolize their city's revival and its changing image in the eyes of the public. Le Havre is a recurring theme in his work, but the artist also likes to tackle more universal subjects. A major exhibition in 2019, featuring about fifty large paintings in the City Hall of Le Havre, confirms the public's enthusiasm for his style.
Mascarade maintains strong ties with his hometown and the seaside but now is also opening up to new horizons. He draws his inspiration from new encounters and experiences to create more and more varied pieces of art. His work can now be seen in Deauville, Cabourg, Saint-Pierre (Reunion Island), Calvi, Dubai... Mascarade alternates between his studio and the outdoors. He loves to rediscover open spaces and rekindle the sense of freedom of his teenage years. He regularly paints large murals or large-scale works such as the 7 m x 8 m "Homage to Raoul Dufy" at the entrance to the town of Sainte-Adresse, or a sail for the Transat Jacques Vabre.
In 2022, the artist opened La Mascarade Gallery to welcome the public and make his work accessible to everyone. Mascarade uses his creations on everyday objects: mugs, tote-bags, t-shirts and prints 50 reproductions of one of his works each month to please as many people as possible.
Mascarade draws on all these encounters, whether at the gallery or elsewhere. The artist constantly renews himself, and his works reflect the energy of the moment.
Mascarade's work is characterized by simple images, composed by numerous symbols with sharp, often black outlines, and a limited number of bold colors, like so many thoughts.
"I think of my work as if I were writing. The drawings come to me in an automatic way as if I were forming words from letters. I create every day, I ingest symbols that end up forming a lexicon, an alphabet from which I draw whatever the moment dictates, to make up a whole. The unconscious plays an important role in the creative process, and even I am surprised at the end to discover hidden or transformed drawings."
Beyond the intention of the work, each collector can in turn tell and imagine a story.