Invader (artist)

French urban artist

Invader is a pseudonymous French street artist identified as Franck Slama. He is known for his ceramic tile mosaics modeled on the pixelated art of 1970s–1980s 8 bit video games, many of which depict the titular aliens from the arcade games Space Invaders, Pac Man and Super Mario Bros. (the inspirations for his pseudonym). as of December 2020, his creations can be seen in highly visible locations in 79 cities in 20 countries. To accompany his citywide installations, or "Invasions", Invader publishes books and maps as guides to the locations of his mosaics. Invader also makes mosaics using QR codes and stacks of Rubik's Cubes (with the latter typically installed indoors).

[[File:Manchester Space Invader. jpg|thumb|One of Invader's aliens (MAN 47) on a wall in Manchester, England, installed in 2004

Multiple sources have identified Franck Slama as Invader. Invader works incognito, often masked and largely at night. In Montpellier, locations were chosen so that, when plotted on a map, they form an image of a giant Space Invaders alien. He has also taken steps against legal action; in late 2015, while planning another "invasion" in New York City, he put out a call on social media for building owners who would be willing to host his mosaics legally.

Since 2004, Invader has also created a series of works, typically for indoor display, exclusively using Rubik's Cubes (a style the artist calls "Rubikcubism," a play on the Cubist art movement of the early 20th century). London, Rome and Lyon at Galerie de Bellecour (now Michali Gallery, Palm Beach; exhibition for which he created the famous "Rubik Mona Lisa"). He has exhibited works at the 6th Lyon Contemporary Art Biennale (2001), the MAMA Gallery in Rotterdam (2002), the Paris based Magda Danysz Gallery (2003), in London (2011). In 2010, he was included in the Banksy documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, filmed by fellow urban artist Thierry Guetta (AKA Mr. Brainwash), whom Invader has claimed is his cousin. the city's Highways Department removed the life sized Hong Kong Phooey (HK 58) mosaic, which had been placed by the side of a road in Fortress Hill. This angered local residents, who saw the removal as an example of the government only paying lip service to promoting the arts in the city. NY145, featuring an invader and an old Apple Computer icon, sold for HK$562,500 ($72,000). A solo exhibition of new and retrospective works – called Wipe Out – was held in Hong Kong in May 2015 in association with the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Foundation and Le French May. In 2017, following an "invasion" in Ravenna, Italy (famed for its ancient mosaics), Invader installed a series of vegetarian themed works in the "Veggietown" neighborhood of Paris (9th and 10th arr.) as a show of support for vegan restaurants.