Invader
Has been cementing mosaic space invaders onto cities since 1998, and mapping them.
Invader is an anonymous French artist who since 1998 has been fixing small mosaics of ceramic tiles, based on the sprites from the 1978 arcade game Space Invaders, onto walls in cities worldwide — several thousand of them, in a numbered, mapped and documented campaign he calls an Invasion, complete with published city guides and a mobile application for finding them. The choice of tile is deliberate: it is a durable outdoor material with a pixel already built in. He has been arrested repeatedly, and one mosaic has been to the International Space Station.
The studio work is where the market is, and it divides into Alias pieces — studio-made mosaics corresponding to a specific street installation, each with its own reference code and certificate — Rubikcubist works made from Rubik's cubes, and editioned prints. The certificate and the reference code are essential; Aliases without them are very difficult to sell. Mosaics prised off walls appear regularly and carry both ownership problems and severe condition problems, and the artist has been publicly hostile to their sale. Fakes of the tile works are common.
If you own a work by Invader
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.