European street artist’s Hong Kong show speaks volumes

One of Europe’s best-known street artists is going to unleash his creations in Hong Kong, but only after he’s left.

A traumatic encounter with the Japanese police has instilled a new fear of the authorities in Clet Abraham, a Frenchman living in Florence whose works have all been about breaking rules.

Abraham, on holiday at the beginning of the year with his Japanese girlfriend, had put his signature stickers on a few street signs in Osaka and Kyoto before flying back to Italy. There, he received a call from the police asking about the signs and readily admitted to being the culprit as he was already safely out of the country. Next thing he knew, his girlfriend was arrested for vandalism.

“She’d stayed behind to spend time with her family. I never thought this sort of thing was possible. She had nothing to do with the signs but she wasn’t allowed to return to Italy for six months and had to report to the police every day,” he says.

The team at Above Second Gallery in Hong Kong, where some of Abraham’s works are on show, have agreed to bear the risk of arrest for him. They will dress up local street signs under his instructions after he leaves.

“I don’t think we’ll get into trouble. Hong Kong has become more open to street art, as you can see from the change in how the French artist Invader is received here,” says May Wong, the gallery’s director.