GIL KD

© Photo: Gabriel Hegedus

When she started out in graffiti, in a Paris that was still unwelcoming to women, she had no choice but to hide. "Gil KD" then became a pseudonym of necessity—a clandestine identity, forged in the margins, to allow herself to create.

Self-taught, Gil learned by observing and experimenting. The street became her space of freedom. She left her mark there through her graffiti: the "Filles du Vent," which adorned the electrical boxes of the city of Tours. In these silhouettes, the memory of her first steps persists and, with it, a fierce desire: to give the city a feminine face.

A pop feminist, Gil KD paints figures with direct and implacable gazes. They stare at us, ready to assert or resist. Ageless, nameless, they are "them and me"—anonymous faces, yet powerfully embodying meaning, struggle, and memory. Women without compromise.

Gil now explores new media, including raw and irregular OSB wood panels. These rough edges, far from being flaws, resonate with the trajectories of the women she depicts: lives that are sometimes chaotic, marked by flaws, scars, and resilience.

She combines techniques—collage, paint, and spray paint—in a free and instinctive approach. The daughter of a horticulturist, Gil sows floral motifs throughout her works, bursts of nature in homage to her father. And, for the first time, specially designed for this exhibition, butterflies land on them: symbols of metamorphosis, fragility, and freedom.

Written by Axel Drouot, co-founder of ArtCollection.